Stephanie Swigart - Montana State English Language Arts and Literacy Coordinator, OPI

Since becoming a teacher in 2010, Stephanie has worked in both urban and rural ELA classrooms and has taught all grades 6-12, as well as undergraduate composition at the University of Montana. She served as an MBI/MTSS School Facilitator, High School Speech and Debate Coach, and Middle School Academic Bowl Coach. She holds both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s of English Teaching degrees from the University of Montana - Missoula, and currently champions best practices as the K-12 ELA and Literacy Coordinator for the Montana State Office of Public Instruction.

Stephanie is committed to building teacher-leader networks and expanding collaboration across the state to meet the diverse needs of all students, families, and schools. In addition to serving Montana ELA teachers as the OPI Liaison for the Montana Association of Educators for the English Language Arts (MATELA), she also collaborates with the State Coordinators of ELA (SCELA) across the U.S. to provide research-aligned guidance, high-quality professional development, and standards-based best practices to Montana schools and educators.

An advocate of arts integration, Stephanie is a Montana Writing Project fellow who has served as a grant project director for the Montana Teacher Leaders in the Arts and RAL NW adjudicator coordinator for the Scholastic Teen Art and Writing Awards. She is currently the project director for both the Montana ELA and Montana World Languages Standards Revisions as well as the ELA content support for the Montana Alternate Student Test (MAST) through-year pilot program

Stephanie enjoys reading dystopian science fiction, camping, knitting, and baking when she is not exploring the wilds of Montana with her educator husband, kindergartener, and two big dog friends.