Valerie Karr

With expertise in inclusive development, education, human rights, youth and disability, and a track record of effective rights-based advocacy internationally, Dr. Valerie Karr’s research and advocacy focus on ensuring the inclusion of marginalized populations in the development agenda. Framed by the “No One Left Behind” movement incorporated into the Sustainable Development Goals, one key research project seeks to support development partners to live up to their commitments in targeting assistance to vulnerable groups (persons with disabilities and vulnerable children) and with what results. Dr. Karr serves as the Principal Investigator of the Multi-Country Study on Inclusive Education, a three-year evaluation of USAID inclusive education activities in Cambodia, Malawi, and Nepal. Transdisciplinary in nature, Dr. Karr’s work spans diverse fields such as international development, public policy, government, economics, sociology, and education. Through academic and consulting work, she engages directly in development initiatives at many levels, such as governments, ministries, schools, and civil society organizations, such as the USAID, United Nations, the World Bank, Open Society Foundation, and country-level work in Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi, Egypt, Cambodia, Qatar, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal, Ghana, Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, and Syria. Dr. Karr holds an Associate Professor position at the University of Massachusetts Boston’s School for Global Inclusion and Social Development.