Lois Anne DeLong, an adjunct instructor at LaGuardia since 2007, has taught most of the basic composition courses offered by the Department of English, including ENG/ENA/ENZ 099, ENG/ENC 101, ENG102, and ENG103. The two basic threads that run through all of her classes is the interrelation between writing and critical thinking, and the idea that literature is best perceived in the context of its time. To achieve the latter, her classes often incorporate articles and research projects aimed at better understanding the social, economic, and political forces that created the world depicted in the text.

Prior to joining the LaGuardia faculty, Lois spent 25 years as a professional writer and editor in the nonprofit sector, handling a variety of assignments in technical publishing, public relations, and marketing. Most of those years were spent at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, where she served as managing editor of two quarterly magazines, publications marketing manager, and senior communications consultant. In 2004, she launched her own editorial freelance business, Better World Ink. She is a regular contributor to an engineering journal, Environmental Progress and Sustainable Development, writing about news and research trends affecting environmental engineers working in the chemical process and energy sectors. Other freelance clients have included ENACT, Inc., a nonprofit drama-in-education organization, and the Grand Street Settlement.

Theatre is another dominant influence on Lois’ life and teaching style. A founding member of the Presbytery of Long Island El Salvador Partnership, she serves as project director for the group’s Youth Theatre Workshop, an annual program that brings together young people from Long Island and El Salvador for a week of theatre exercises, improvisations, and the development and performance of an original bilingual play. Lois is also director of GSG (Godsongs Group) Productions, a youth and young adult theatre group based in Brentwood, NY, that produces original plays. To date, she has penned ten full-length plays for this group, and several shorter presentations for the Youth Theatre Workshop. In 2004, Pioneer Drama Services published one of her plays, a topical one-act called "Touchy Subjects" that deals with sexual harassment in schools. She is also co-author of No Manger too Small, a collection of short Christmas plays for children, published by CSS Publications in the fall of 2006.

Schools Attended: New York University (B.A.-Journalism and Dramatic Literature; M.A.-Theatre in Education)

Literature I like to teach: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Things they Carried by Tim O’Brien, The Piano Lesson by August Wilson, The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, 14 by Jose Casas, The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman, King Lear by William Shakespeare, and the oral histories of Crossing the Boulevard. In future classes, we will be studying Othello by Shakespeare, Antigone by Sophocles, and Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow.