Susan Ray

I’m Dr. Susan Ray, an Associate Professor of English at Delaware County Community College, and I’ve had the privilege of spending the past two decades teaching composition and literature to college students. My work has always centered on helping students understand and confidently engage with the forces shaping their lives. This philosophy has led me into the realm of artificial intelligence, where I don’t see AI as a shortcut or a threat to be managed, but rather a literacy to be developed. In my classrooms, this means designing process-based assignments, using AI transparency journals, and making the beautiful, messy process of student learning visible rather than hidden behind a final product. This work has expanded beyond my curriculum. I lead the grant-funded “Bridging the AI Gap” initiative at DCCC and serve as an AI Faculty Mentor for the AAC&U and an AI-Aware Faculty Fellow with W. W. Norton & Company. I’m also the author of “The Fourth Literacy,” published in What Education Becomes: Teaching and Learning in a Post-AI World (2026), where I argue that AI literacy now exists alongside reading, writing, and digital fluency as a foundational skill. I regularly lead professional development sessions that help administrators and faculty rethink assessment, academic integrity, and student learning in the AI era. These sessions focus on practical, equity-centered strategies: designing AI-integrated assignments, shifting from surveillance to transparency, and helping students develop the critical judgment needed to work with the tools now reshaping the workforce.