Amy Lee M. Locklear, PhD,  is a Distinguished Senior Lecturer and Honors Faculty in the Department of English and Philosophy. She specializes in digital writing and rhetoric, composition pedagogy, and learning sciences. Her research interests include teaching rhetoric in the composition classroom, cognitive science and education, digital writing spaces and rhetorical practices, and research writing. She has published a number of works related to the intersections of cognitive science and critical thinking and learning, especially in terms of writing pedagogy. She teaches first year writing courses (English 0103, 1010, and 1020), as well as Advanced Writing (English 3050) and the first-year Seminars for the Honors Program (The Hero’s Journey Into Thinking – Honors 1757). Dr. Locklear is originally from Virginia, and attended the College of William & Mary in Virginia for her B.A. in English Literature. From there she moved around the country as an Air Force spouse, ending up in Alabama in 2000. She earned her M.A. in English from Auburn University, specializing in rhetoric and literature, and recently earned her Doctorate from Old Dominion University in Digital Rhetoric and Composition. Her dissertation, “Concept Maps as Sites of Rhetorical Invention: Teaching the Creative Act of Synthesis as a Cognitive Process,” is based on interdisciplinary research on the brain, active learning, and writing pedagogy. Her other publications are pedagogical in focus, including writing and co-editing open-educational resources for first-year writing courses. In addition to her teaching and research pursuits, Dr. Locklear is a fan of science fiction and dragons.