Dr. Walker

Dr. Allison R. Walker is an educator and leader with a deep knowledge of special education across a variety of environments. She started her career as a transition support teacher in Germantown, Maryland where she provided transition services to both the high and low-incidence population of students with disabilities in the high school setting. In addition, she worked as a transition specialist for George Mason T/TAC where she provided transition services for Region 4 in the state of Virginia. She has also worked with the National Technical Assistance Center on Transition (NTACT) (formally known as the National Secondary Transition Technical Assistance Center) where she helped to develop the Indicator 13 Checklist to ensure that transition plans for students with disabilities ages 16 and older are in compliance with federal guidelines. These and other experiences helped to establish her expertise in the transition of students with high-incidence disabilities into employment, postsecondary education, and independent living with a concentration on diversity in transition, specifically the self-advocacy skills of students with disabilities from minority backgrounds.

She also honed in on her leadership skills as a professor at Temple and Towson University and later gained tenure as an associate professor and served as the program coordinator for the special education undergraduate program at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She has taught a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses related to special education, transition, and effective instructional practices and has conducted countless presentations at international, state, and local special education conferences across the country. Dr. Walker also served as the Director of Special Education and Related Services for a school district in Wilmington, NC serving approximately 3,200 students with disabilities per school year. Most recently, she worked as an educational consultant, specifically serving as an expert witness in a special education federal court case. Prior to coming to Charlotte Lab, she was the Head of School at a private school for children with disabilities in Charlotte.