Dr. Kenyona Walker is an emerging scholar on Race in Education, leveraging her passion for education and equity by building the capacity of others to foster equity and diversity in educational contexts. She serves as a co-leader of the Center CETE’s Steering Team for the Racial Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (REDI) Movement, serving as an invited speaker, at the national and local levels. She also teaches Urban Issues in Education at The Ohio State University. Walker is the Principal Investigator on the Parent Mentors Oversight and Professional Development Project, sponsored by the Ohio Department of Education. As a licensed school psychologist, Dr. Walker uses her previous experience working in schools and a scholarly approach to working collaboratively with educators, Parent Mentors, and local stakeholders across the state, to address issues related to the evaluation of students regarding Special Education and their specialized supports.

Dr. Walker leads the Staying and Thriving: Cultivating Community with and for Black Women Undergraduate Students in the College of Education and Human Ecology project as a Principal Investigator. The project is designed to increase the sense of belonging of Black women students at The Ohio State University. Walker’s research has been published in both scholarly and creative works, including a pending book chapter. Spanning across PK-12 and higher education spaces and driven by the belief that “we must do justice”, Dr. Walker develops blueprints for the intersection of research and practice to reimagine what equity in education can be.

She has also been selected as a Fellow for the 2022 cohort for  Leadership Ohio, a nonprofit organization catalyzing statewide leadership and leading a unifying movement of diverse, connected leaders striving to improve Ohio. Additionally, she has been selected to serve on the Governing Board for the Regional Educational Laboratory  Midwest, a network of 10 regional educational laboratories funded by the Institute of Education Sciences to collaborate with school districts, state departments of education, and others in its region to support the use of research and data to improve student outcomes, particularly students of color and students who are furthest from opportunity.