Kristen K. Seward

A proponent of gifted education for developing all students’ strengths since starting her teaching career in 1987, Dr. Kristen Seward was inspired by Dr. John Feldhusen, founder of Purdue University’s Gifted Education Research and Resource Institute (GER2I). After teaching middle and high school English in self-contained gifted and mixed ability classrooms, Kristen earned her master’s in school counseling, and for the majority of her 17 ½ years in public schools, she counseled middle and high school students. Returning to her love of teaching and fulfilling her dream of teaching teachers, Kristen completed her Ph.D. in 2017 under the advisement of Dr. Marcia Gentry. Kristen continues at Purdue as a clinical associate professor in Educational Studies, associate director of GER2I, certification and licensure adviser and program coordinator, and GER2I ‘s youth program director. Since 2015, she has received over $7.6 million dollars in grant and fellowship funds, authored or co-authored five refereed articles and six book chapters, and led over 50 refereed presentations to national and international audiences on four continents. Kristen has held leadership positions in state and national gifted education associations and volunteers to review articles for nine professional journals in rural and gifted education. At Purdue, she received the 2025 Clinical Faculty Award for Engagement in the Department of Educational Studies and the 2023 Seed for Success Acorn Award from Purdue’s Office of Research for first $1,000,000+ grants, and in 2021, she was selected to participate in the Scholarship of Engagement Fellows Program and the IMPACT Faculty Fellow Program.