Virginia Walker
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Associate Professor, Department of Special Education and Child Development
virginia.walker@uncc.edu
Virginia L. Walker, PhD, BCBA-D, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Special Education and Child Development at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Dr. Walker began her career as a special education teacher of students with extensive support needs in Atlanta, Georgia before attending the University of Virginia where she worked on several federally funded grants involving research in the areas of multi-tiered models of positive behavioral interventions and support and teacher preparation in the area of extensive support needs. Building upon this work, Dr. Walker’s line of research has focused on three general themes: positive behavioral interventions and supports for students with extensive support needs, supports planning to enhance the inclusion of students with extensive support needs, and effective training practices for school staff supporting students from this population. Dr. Walker serves as an editorial review board member of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, one of the primary publications of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities, the primary publication of TASH, and Inclusive Practices, the new research-to-practice journal of TASH. Additionally, she served as co-founder and co-leader of the Early Career Researcher Network, a TASH community of practice that serves to overcome barriers faced by early career scholars and promote continued research in high-need areas relevant to the TASH national agenda.
