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Kate Walker
Research associate
Current work, research and interests
I conduct applied research and evaluation on youth development practice and programs. My work centers on understanding, evaluating and elevating youth work practice. I am particularly interested in practitioner expertise, program quality and youth work ethics.
Most recently, my research explores the dilemmas that practitioners face in their everyday work with youth and their strategies for addressing these challenges. Currently I am principal investigator on the Pathways Project (Proyecto Caminos), a three-year study of the development of self-direction in youth-program-family interaction systems among Latino and non-Latino adolescents (with Reed Larson and Marcella Raffaelli, funded by the W.T. Grant Foundation).
Academic degrees and experience
- Ph.D., educational psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2005.
- M.A., educational policy and administration, University of Minnesota, 1998.
- B.A., psychology and French, Gustavus Adolphus College, 1993.
I have more than 12 years of experience conducting applied research and evaluation with youth programs. Before returning to my native Minnesota, I worked and studied at the University of Illinois, where I served as project director for The Youth Development Experience (TYDE), a qualitative study of the developmental processes that occur in youth programs. Prior to that, I provided evaluation support, training and technical assistance to community-based organizations.
Selected publications
Contact
kcwalker@umn.edu
1-612-624-7988
University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus
Kate Walker on
Youth Development Insight 
Center for Youth Development faculty & educators blog on issues in our field
- 3/14 5 simple steps toward publishing
- 11/3 Reflecting on a century of youth development research and practice
- 6/22 Top 10 tech tools for our work
- 5/24 Dilemmas of practice: What's a youth worker to do?
- 3/4 How can we support youth who are "suddenly military"?
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