English professor, Dr. Cassundra White-Elliott has been teaching at College of the Desert for the past six years. She received her bachelor’s degree in liberal arts, her master’s degree in English and a Ph.D. in education. Elliott teaches various levels of English courses at COD.

At a very young age, Elliott knew she wanted to pursue a career in teaching, “I’ve wanted to be a teacher since I was eight years old.”

Before teaching at COD, Dr.Elliott was an elementary teacher. “I began teaching elementary school. Then, I transitioned to high school, where I taught English for three years. I have been teaching college and university level English classes for 20 years.”

Many teachers have a great impact on their students’ lives and on what they become later in life.

For Dr.Elliott, one of her teachers was a source of inspiration and who inspired her to pass on her knowledge to students. “I have always had an innate ability to teach and a burning desire to pass knowledge on to others. My third-grade teacher was a great source of inspiration.”

Other than teaching English courses for COD students, during the summer, Dr. Elliott teaches in the  EDGE/PLEDGE program.  EDGE/PLEDGE  is a program that allows high school students to get free tuition for two years at COD.

She also helps out at the TASC center as an English Faculty liaison and has had workshops for students.

“Other than teaching the ‘regular’ semester courses, I have taught in the summer EDGE/PLEDGE program over the last four years, from 2017 to 2019.  I several as the English Faculty liaison for the Tutoring and Academic Skills Center. I held student workshops on Time Management, Test Taking Skills, and MLA/APA formatting,” said Dr.Elliot.

Elliott spends a lot of her time teaching and helping students, but during her free time she also does something she is passionate about, “I am a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ and have taught biblical courses over the last 15 years.”

Besides being a professor, Dr. Elliott is a businesswoman. She operates CLF Publishing, LLC.

CLF Publishing LLC is a publishing company that allows authors to publish their stories and/or books. Dr.Elliott said, “I also am the founder and operator of CLF Publishing, LLC, publishing books for individual authors throughout the US.”

After teaching for over  20 years now, Dr. Elliot said she enjoys seeing her students learn more and more each day and that,” seeing the metaphorical light of understanding flood students’ awareness,” is the most rewarding thing about her job.