After nine years as a high school English teacher and several years as a college professor, Dr. Kirby joined the KSU English Education faculty in 2005 as Professor of English/English Education. She is the co-author of Inside Out: Strategies for Teaching Writing, Third Edition (2004) and New Directions in Teaching Writing: Memoir (2007), both with Heinemann Publishers. Dr. Kirby is also the co-editor of SIGNAL journal. Her primary research interests are the application of best practices and theory to teaching writing and connections between literature and writing processes.

Dr. Kirby assumed directorship of the Kennesaw Mountain Writing Project in January, 2007. She is also the Program Coordinator of the English Education Ed.D. program at KSU.