Kathleen King Thorius, Ph.D.

Executive Director, Great Lakes Equity Center, Midwest and Plains Equity Assistance Center
Associate Professor, Indiana University School of Education IUPUI
Editor, Multiple Voices: Disability, Race, and Language Intersections in Special Education

Kathleen King Thorius is Associate Professor of Special Education and Urban Education Studies and Executive Director of the Great Lakes Equity Center and its Midwest and Plains Equity Assistance Center. Thorius is an internationally recognized expert in culturally responsive and sustaining education, special and inclusive education, equity considerations in multi-tiered systems of support, and race and disability equity-oriented professional development. Published extensively in practitioner and research outlets, including Harvard Educational Review, and the International Journal of Inclusive Education, Thorius was a school psychologist before earning her Ph.D. as a USDOE-funded doctoral fellow in an interdisciplinary program to prepare culturally responsive special education professors. During this time, she was a professional learning coordinator for the National Center for Culturally Responsive Education Systems and the National Center for Urban School Improvement—and co-directed the Equity Alliance at Arizona State University. Thorius presents nationally and internationally on race, language, and dis/ability equity, and multi-tiered systems of support including culturally responsive school-wide discipline approaches. Her expertise undergirds past and current work with myriad US urban, rural, and suburban school districts and state departments of education.