Susan McLeod, founder of SDSU’s Writing Across the Curriculum program in the ‘80s, pays it forward

Susan H. McLeod began her teaching career at San Diego State University as a lecturer in the Department of English and Comparative Literature in the mid-1970s.

In 1982 McLeod received a grant from the Office of the Chancellor for a Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) initiative, an approach aimed at integrating writing, critical thinking and communication skills across all academic disciplines. “It was a nationwide movement,” she said, and it wasn’t well understood in English departments.

In those days, SDSU students learned writing skills solely through the Department of English and Comparative Literature — but an evolution toward a new discipline in writing was imminent.  

The idea of instituting a research-based approach to teaching writing began with a few English faculty (including McLeod) who realized that revising the curriculum for writing was a necessity. McLeod taught WAC faculty seminars that explored the need for a more robust writing program that would tap into critical thinking and problem solving to enhance the student experience. Nationally, there was also a drive to move the teaching of writing out of English and into separate departments of writing studies. 

After much work, the Department of Rhetoric and Writing (RWS) was officially approved by the SDSU Senate in the early 1990s — and to this day it is the only department of its kind in the entire California State University system. “I feel very fortunate in having been present at the creation of this new discipline of writing studies and witnessing the birth of these new departments,” McLeod said. Among these, “[The] Rhetoric and Writing Studies [Department] is just a jewel.” She came back to SDSU to give the department’s Landmark Lecture in 2013, on developing a major in writing studies. 

McLeod’s Career Trajectory

McLeod left SDSU in 1986 to take a position as an associate professor at Washington State University; she enjoyed a long career in university teaching and administration where she was a writing program administrator, and also at various times a department chair and associate dean. She finished her career as director of the Writing Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she was named research professor and distinguished scholar. In 2021 she was named a distinguished fellow of the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum, where a New Scholar Fellowship was named after her. 

For more than a decade after retirement she continued to influence the field as the editor of the Perspectives on Writing series for the WAC Clearinghouse/University Press of Colorado. 

“Sue McLeod has contributed to the study of writing — specifically to research on writing across the curriculum and writing program administration — as a scholar and as an editor of scholarly work,” said RWS Chair Kathryn Valentine. “Those of us in the department working in these areas have benefitted greatly from this expertise.”  

Why Philanthropy Now

McLeod understands the importance of giving back to support and inspire faculty.
Her new charitable gift for RWS gives lecturers a chance to expand their professional development opportunities and enhance their research knowledge. 

She remembers her time as a lecturer and the difficulties she faced; she hopes her gift will help lecturers who may not have the institutional support they need for attending conferences and conducting research. As of spring 2026, there were 55 lecturers in the RWS department.

“It is such an honor that Sue has chosen to support the department and specifically rhetoric and writing lecturers who dedicate so much time and energy in their work with students as writers and critical thinkers,” Valentine said.

McLeod knows the value of attending national conferences and meetings. “It’s very important to keep up with what’s happening in the field, and I have a soft spot in my heart for this department.”