Nanette Koelsch is a Senior Research Associate in the Teacher Professional Development Program at WestEd. Her areas of expertise include teacher professional development for teachers of English learners, literacy education, and portfolio assessment.

Koelsh provides research-based technical assistance to help educators improve schooling for diverse populations; manages several district-level projects that focus on developing culturally relevant assessments for ethnolinguistically and culturally diverse students; and works closely with educators to develop curriculum-embedded assessments that inform instruction and meet state standards, including social studies pedagogy and curriculum.

Prio to joining WestEd, Koelsh was an instructor in the Department of Bilingual and Multicultural Education at the Northern Arizona University, teaching graduate courses addressing literacy and the education of linguistically and culturally diverse students. She taught English language arts, social studies, and mathematics at the elementary and middle school levels in heterogeneously mixed classes of English learners and monolingual English speakers.

She received an MA in the Language, Literacy, and Culture division of the School of Education at University of California, Berkeley, where she is completing her doctoral work.