Kate Barker

When someone asks Kate Barker how many children she has, she replies, “Five hundred thirty-seven, plus two.” As well as having two children of her own, Kate is currently a principal in Portland, Oregon. She has been an educator for the past thirty years all in an incredibly diverse urban area. Kate has spent her career dedicated to supporting and learning from her community. She has been a fourth- and fifth-grade teacher and a district office language arts and federal grants leader. In the past seventeen years, she has lovingly served as a principal at three different buildings. In her current building, she works with a vibrant community of preschool through fifth-grade students. Seventy-five percent of the families experience poverty, and twenty-eight different languages are spoken. Many of her students, whose basic needs are not met, are steeped in trauma. And yet, the students in her school consistently outperform state averages. She holds a master’s in special education and is a champion for building a culture that includes all students and families. She believes that everything starts with a genuine relationship, and connections and high expectations are at the core of her community’s success.

Kate speaks on many topics which include multi-tiered systems of academic and behavior support, systems and structures for successful schools, navigating personalities and having hard conversations, inclusion of all children without tears, setting up a preschool within your school, capitalizing on community partners to support schools and much more! She also is active in her state's educational leadership organization, COSA, and has held multiple offices to support principals around her state. She is an adjunct professor for aspiring administrations and has enjoyed mentoring principals and teacher leaders. Another one of Kate's passions is rescuing food that would otherwise end up in landfills and redistributing that food to hungry families through an organization called, Urban Gleaners, where she serves as a board member. You can reach her at Katiesusanbarker@gmail.com or @Kate_S_Barker on Twitter.