Rate My Professor Valerie Karr

Karr's influential publications include "A Life of Quality: Informing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities" (2011), "Crises, Conflict and Disability" (2015, edited with D. Mitchell), "Human Rights. YES!: Action and Advocacy on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities" (2007), "Inclusion of Children with Learning Difficulties in Literacy and Numeracy in Ghana: A Literature Review" (2022, with A. Hayes and S. Hayford), "Online Parent Training: A Pilot Programme for Children with Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities in Bangladesh" (2017), and "The Lived Experience of Refugee Children in Informal Camp Settlements: A Photovoice Project in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon" (2021). During her PhD at Columbia, she contributed to the negotiations of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, shaping its language on education. She leads projects such as the USAID-funded Multi-Country Study on Inclusive Education across Nepal, Malawi, and Cambodia, emphasizing policy development, teacher training, and support systems for inclusive practices. At UMass Boston, Karr teaches courses like systemic thinking for social change and innovations in policy and practice for inclusion, supervises doctoral students, and leads transdisciplinary research teams focused on building accountable systems of inclusion aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals.