Susan Coles, a teacher with 29 years of classroom experience, teaching AP English Literature for sixteen years and AP English Language for one year at Sheridan High School, where she also served as Department Chair. Prior to that experience, she taught at Pine Bluff High School for 13 years, establishing and teaching AP Language at Pine Bluff High School. She has served as an AP Reader for the College Board’s reading of the English Literature Exam since 2017. For several years she served as an AR AIMS consultant, leading Saturday prep sessions throughout Arkansas and working with AP students and teachers to hone their skills.

Rebecca Cox taught AP English Language and Composition at Fayetteville High School for 28 years. For 18 years she advised their literary magazine, Connotations. She was the first person from Arkansas to serve as a reader for the College Board’s reading of the AP English Language and Composition Exam. Having served as a reader for many years, she is now a Table Leader for the exam. In 1997, she became a English Consultant for the College Board and presented at many APSIs and two-day conferences in Arkansas and in the South.

For several years, she traveled Arkansas doing Saturday prep sessions for AR AIMS, working with AP students and teachers. In 2019, she became an English Consultant for AR AIMS serving students and teachers in Northwest Arkansas.

I began my career in 1976 at Searcy High School, teaching sophomore English (regular and advanced) as well as X and XX classes (these were mainstreamed special education students). I also taught US Government and International Relations in subsequent years. In 1985, I was given the opportunity to begin the Advanced Placement curriculum at SHS; I taught AP English Literature as well as Concurrent Credit English until I retired in 2004. It was the first AP course ever offered at SHS. I was also the first National Board Certified Teacher for the district, eventually mentoring many of my colleagues to that certification as well. When I left SHS, seven of my former students were teaching English there, a fact that gives me great pride even today.

I “retired” in 2004 to take care of my mother who had been diagnosed with multiple myeloma. Unfortunately, she died within three months of my retirement. Therefore, I went back to teaching, this time at Greenbrier, first as 8th and 9th grade English teacher (my “reality check” year) and then moving to the high school to teach both AP English Language and Literature. I remained there until 2012 when I again “retired,” gratefully accepting the consultant position with AR AIMS that fall.

My husband Dickey is a retired firefighter from Conway; he is an excellent wood craftsman and currently makes custom cabinets. I have one son, Derrek, who is a USDA/NRCS Conservationist in Malvern. He and his wife Tracy are the parents of my two grandchildren, Matthew (12) and Emma (11). I loved being their “home-school” teacher this past semester. They did complain, however, that “Grammy makes us do things the long, complicated way.” You can take the teacher out of the classroom, but ……

Tracie Moon began her teaching career in Lubbock, TX before her family was transferred to Little Rock. She taught Pre AP ELA in the Bryant district for ten years and then moved to Sioux Falls, SD. While in Sioux Falls, Tracie was named Director of Gifted Education for SFSD. Her family was once again transferred to the Dallas area. While in TX, Tracie taught Pre AP and Gifted English. Tracie and her family were thrilled to have the opportunity to move to AR again. In addition to teaching, Mrs. Moon has presented at numerous conferences and mentored young teachers. Tracie was named Educator of the Year twice.



In her spare time, Tracie enjoys reading, writing, running, and gardening.

Phyllis Orlicek has been a Consultant for Arkansas AR AIMS for five years. She was Arkansas’ Teacher of the Year in 1996. She represented the USA in Kazakhstan as a Teacher of Excellence for the American Councils for International Education and participated in the Poet’s Round Table at England’s University of Oxford. She collectively taught 37 years at DeWitt High School, Stuttgart Middle and High School, and Phillips Community College/Stuttgart Campus, where she was Faculty Member of the Year and Faculty Senate President. She has also been a Reader for AP Literature. She is married to Steve, a farmer; has two children, and one granddaughter.

Doris Rutherford has been an English consultant for AR AIMS for three years. During her 35-year career with the Pulaski County Special School District, she taught on-level and enrichment classes as well as AP English Literature and Pre-AP English. She served as department chair, worked on numerous curriculum and standards committees, and was a reader for the national AP English Literature Exam. Doris was a presenter at College Board-endorsed AP and Pre-AP Summer Institutes in Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, and Florida and served as a mentor for Pre-AP teachers in a University of Arkansas at Little Rock initiative to recruit more minority teachers.

Before becoming a consultant for AR AIMS, Doris was the English Director for the National Math and Science Initiative in Dallas, TX, and for LTF Training prior to that organization’s merger with NMSI. During her nine years with these organizations, she worked with a team of English educators who created vertically aligned standards-based instructional materials and provided training for AP and other ELA teachers across the country.

Doris holds bachelors and masters degrees in English education from the University of Central Arkansas and received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to study Milton’s Paradise Lost at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA.

Dee Schulten taught English for the PCSSD for thirty-two years, retiring in 2005 from Jacksonville High School. During her career she taught Pre-AP in grades 7-11 and began the AP English Language and Composition course at JHS in 1994.

For several years she was a College Board AP and Pre-AP consultant, LTF trainer, NMSI consultant, and ADE Praxis III Assessor Trainer. For twelve years she was a Reader and Table Leader for the AP English Language exam and in 1999 received an Advanced Placement Special Recognition Award from the College Board’s Southwestern Region.

Dee has been an AR AIMS Consultant for 7 yearas. In addition to her work with AR AIMS, Dee creates mock exams and AP English Language Exam deconstruction lessons for Propel Education Strategies and has re-designed Applied Practice Contemporary Nonfiction and Nonfiction Selections resource guides.