Career faculty spotlight: Andrea Severson
By Carolyn Davis — March 18, 2025
Instructor Andrea Severson is not only a fulltime faculty member at ASU but also is an accomplished author, instagrammer, and vlogger with a YouTube channel chronicling her experiences — most recently a trip to London, England.
Severson grew up in a reading home; her parents read during their spare time, and she doesn’t remember a time when she wasn’t reading books. Her parents encouraged her to read, to be creative, and to express her imagination. Severson’s parents also gave her the gift of travel. Her father’s Army career took her back and forth across the pond, and weekends in Germany were frequently spent exploring castles. As a young child, the castles' histories may have been underappreciated although the experiences opened her mind to exploring and to possibility.
Being an author
Like some authors who choose the indie path, Severson self-publishes her own novels. This means she does everything herself; she writes, proofreads, edits, designs her book covers, and promotes her work. In a traditional publishing house, a team would take care of everything except the writing itself.
Severson said that while she reads, her writer/editor brain may be somewhat engaged but she can lose herself and become totally immersed. If there are too many distractions in a book, she may begin to ponder how it could be better, and she is also inspired to imagine beyond the storyline she’s actually reading. What would the narrative look like had the character said “yes” instead of “no?”
ASU experiences
Severson’s favorite class to teach is ENG 302: Business Writing. She takes care to connect real-world experiences with what she teaches in the classroom. Students realizing that what they are learning applies outside the classroom makes Severson genuinely happy. So many students have commented that ENG 302 was way more relevant to their life outside of ASU than they expected.
What keeps Severson engaged? It’s the little bits of magic—seeing the moment when an idea clicks for a student, a head nod during a lecture, or when students understand the class isn’t simply something to endure in the degree program but to enrich their lives.
“For me,” Severson said, “teaching is about learning to spot those little moments of connection for a student and not be so caught up in what I'm teaching that I don't notice.”
Andrea Severson's books
"A Brave Start" (Across the Pond Book 1)
"Brave With You" (Across the Pond Book 2)
"Brave Together" (Across the Pond Book 3)
"Forever Love London" (Across the Pond Book 4)
"The Bookshop of Possibilities" (Independent Hearts Book 1)
"The Inn of Hopes and Dreams" (Independent Hearts Book 2)
"The Candle Shop of Wicks and Whimsy" (Independent Hearts Book 3)
"More Than Fate" (co-written with Tamzin Burch)