Rate My Professor Valerie Karr

Valerie Karr is an Associate Professor of international development and Graduate Program Director in the School for Global Inclusion and Social Development at the University of Massachusetts Boston, a position she has held since 2013. She earned her PhD in Health and Behavior Studies, focusing on Intellectual Disability and Autism, from Columbia University; her MEd in Elementary Education and Special Education from Plymouth State University; and her BS in Recreation Management and Policy, with a concentration in Therapeutic Recreation, from the University of New Hampshire. Karr's research interests encompass disability rights, inclusive education, human rights education and advocacy, inclusive development, youth inclusion movements, families and culture, program development for autism spectrum disorder, research methods, systems mapping, and inclusive monitoring and evaluation. She co-founded Inclusive Development Partners, where she serves as president, partnering with the United Nations, USAID, and other agencies on disability-inclusive development and the inclusion of vulnerable populations such as persons with disabilities and girls. Her international work spans countries including Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi, Egypt, Cambodia, Qatar, Bangladesh, Nepal, Ghana, Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, Tajikistan, Liberia, and Syria.

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.