Katharine O. Strunk is the Dean of the Graduate School of Education and the George and Diane Weiss Professor of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. She is nationally renowned for her partner-driven research and leadership, which has brought multimethod, collaborative scholarship to bear on pressing questions facing education and educators. She partners extensively with district and state policy makers, including working with the Los Angeles Unified School District and the California and Michigan Departments of Education. She served as the only researcher on Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s Student Recovery Advisory Council, which informed COVID-19 recovery efforts in schools statewide. She has also advised on numerous major local and state education reforms.

Dr. Strunk served as president of the Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP) in 2021–2022. She is a member of the Executive Leadership Board for the National Center for Research on Education Access and Choice (REACH). From 2017 to 2023, she served as director of the Education Policy Innovation Collaborative (EPIC) at Michigan State University, which partners with the Michigan Department of Education and local school districts to craft targeted research that is a priority for policymakers and educators.

Prior to joining Penn GSE, Dr. Strunk was the Clifford E. Erickson Distinguished Chair in Education and a professor of education policy and by courtesy economics at Michigan State University. From 2009 to 2017 she served on the faculty of the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education and Sol Price School of Public Policy. She began her career at the University of California at Davis School of Education, serving on the faculty from 2007 to 2009.