About me
Dr. Karen Walker is an experienced educator, administrator, and education consultant. She directs initiatives to increase student success and retention at the collegiate level while also serving as a Literacy Consultant for Grades K-12. She has taught in the elementary grades as well as undergraduate and graduate courses focused on curriculum, methods and materials for teaching reading and language arts. Karen is passionate about increasing education attainment levels for minority, low-income, and first-generation college students. Her professional journey which spans for over 30 years started with her serving as a classroom teacher and instructional leader in the public and private school sectors. She holds State of Illinois teaching, principal, and superintendent licensures.
She earned a Master’s degree in Language and Literacy and a Doctorate degree in Educational Leadership. In 2013 her doctoral research on adolescent independent student reading was published internationally in the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. She combines her experiences as a classroom teacher, university professor and administrator with her knowledge of literacy and educational leadership to increase student achievement and persistence to college completion.
