Dr. Wells, a native of Germany, came to the University of Kansas as a Fulbright student in 1963, in order to do graduate work in the Department of Geography where she received her master’s degree in 1965 and her doctorate degree in 1979. She taught Physical Geography at the Universities of Minnesota, Oregon, and Kansas before entering the Kansas Public School System in 1984. After three years at Topeka West High School, where she taught Geography and German, she started a new German Program at Seaman High School in Topeka in 1988. She taught and coached in the Seaman district until the Summer of 2005. In addition to teaching all levels of German, she taught Modern German Society and German Customs and Culture in support of a student exchange program (SEAMAPP) with a high school in Marburg, Germany. Coaching duties at Seaman High School included Scholars’ Bowl and Girls Soccer. Besides SEAMAPP, she sponsored, German Club, National German Honor Society, and Model United Nations. In the Fall of 2006, Dr. Wells held a temporary position as Instructor of German at Baker University in Baldwin City, Kansas, and in the Spring of 2007, she substituted full-time in German at Olathe Northwest High School in Olathe, Kansas. Currently, Dr. Wells is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of German at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas, and a Specialty Teacher for German at the Prairie Moon Waldorf School in Lawrence, Kansas.
Dr. Wells has been Vice-President, President, and Past President of the Kansas Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of German (KATG) and has served as Testing and Awards Chairperson and in several other capacities for this professional organization. She also is a Life Member of the Kansas World Language Association, was a member of the KISS-FL (Kansas Initiative for State Standards in Foreign Language) writing team that developed the Kansas State Foreign Language Standards, and is a KISS-FL State Standards Trainer. She also served on a panel of German Teachers involved in setting minimum standards for the content-based German Test beginning German teachers in Kansas have to pass in order to be licensed by the Kansas State Board of Education. On the national level, Dr. Wells worked for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards that provides national certification of American high school teachers.
Dr. Wells has received numerous honors and awards, including several scholarships from the Goethe Institute for Summer Workshops in Germany, one from the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) for a FLES Summer Workshop in Minnesota to obtain K-6 certification in German, and one from Kansas State University for participation in a yearlong National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Foreign Language Institute. There are several awards Dr. Wells particularly cherishes: Kansas German Teacher of the Year (Duden Award) in 1997; Nikolaus Drake Richardson Memorial Teacher/Educator Award in 2000; Seaman High School Teacher of the Year in 2001; and Kansas Foreign Language Teacher of the Year in 2002. She also was listed several times in Who's Who Among American Teachers.
In her community, Dr. Wells has volunteered in 4-H for many years. She served as Project Leader in the McLouth Crackerjacks 4-H Club, countywide Forestry Leader for Jefferson County, and Superintendent at the Jefferson County 4-H Fair. In 2007, she received the 25-year 4-H Emerald Clover Pin. Her son Axel, also a KU Department of Geography alumnus, lives near Atlanta, Georgia, with his wife Michelle and his two children Katelyn and Alexander.
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