Nancy W. Sindelar, Ph.D.

Nancy W. Sindelar, Ph.D., has spent over 30 years in education as a teacher, administrator, university professor and consultant. She has published numerous articles and three books on educational topics and two Hemingway biographies.

Working with schools across the country to improve student achievement, she focuses on standards-based curriculum and assessment alignment, collection, use and interpretation of student test data, legal issues in education and teacher mentorship and the development of high performing teacher teams. Nancy’s consulting efforts have moved schools from state academic “watchlists” to “most improved status,” based on state test scores.

Nancy’s Hemingway biographies, Influencing Hemingway and Hemingway’s Passions, were inspired by her background in teaching. She states, “As a former English teacher at Hemingway’s alma mater, Oak Park and River Forest High School, I first explored Ernest’s high school years as a means of engaging my students in his novels. Together my students and I learned that the man who became an international literary figure and sports legend also was a high school athlete, the editor of the school’s newspaper, a contributor to the literary magazine and that he played the cello in the school’s orchestra and participated in the school play.”

Now, after years of research and travel, Nancy’s writing and presentations are energized by her passion for all things Hemingway, her research into his private letters, his fiction and nonfiction, and her extensive travel to and knowledge of the locales that were important to the writer. She has stood in the bedroom where Hemingway was born and the foyer where he ended his life and has visited all the places in between

Educational Background

Nancy received her bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University, a master’s degree from DePaul University, a certificate of advanced studies from Concordia University, and a doctor of philosophy degree from Loyola University of Chicago. She was a visiting scholar with the English faculty at Cambridge University, England and served a four-year term as president of Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy Alumni Board.

She’s a board member of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park, a member of the International Hemingway Society, and was the 2021 Writer-in-residence at Hemingway’s Idaho home. Her publications include Using Test Data for Student Achievement: Answers to No Child Left Behind, Assessment-Powered Teaching, Developing an Effective Mentor Teacher Program, Influencing Hemingway and Hemingway’s Passions.