Kathy Barker

Ms. Kathy Barker completed 35 years of leadership positions before joining the MAASE staff in 2022. Her career began as a teacher of special education then transitioned to Principal, Supervisor, then Director of Special Education within the Grand Rapids Public Schools. The next step in her career involved working for Aquinas College in Grand Rapids where she established a teacher training program for the approval area of POHI, with a specialization in Conductive Education. During her leadership at the College she opened a non-profit collaborative lab school for POHI/Conductive Education teacher preparation. This was done in partnership with the then Peto Institute of Budapest Hungary. In 2003 Ms. Barker was appointed Supervisor of Quality Assurance/Coordinator of Monitoring Activities for the MDE/Office of Special Education. Her final position within the Michigan education system was serving as the Executive Director of Special Education at Oakland ISD.