Kate Garvin
Aurora Public Schools
Aurora, Colorado
Kate Garvin is the Director of Family Advocacy and Community Engagement for the ACTION Zone Schools in Aurora Public Schools. She offers 8 years of district leadership in innovative space to redesign and transform the relationship between schools and communities, with the community at the center. The ACTION Zone Community Schools engages over 200 parent leaders and 90 community partners to identify and respond to the top needs in the North Aurora community: Out of School Time, Health and Wellness, and Family Empowerment. Prior to her work in the ACTION Zone, Kate worked in non-profit program management focused on refugee resettlement, positive youth development, college access, and volunteer management. She received various community recognition for her work, including Kids Health Champion in 2018 by Every Child Pediatrics, 3 Promising Practices of Shared Power by Colorado Education Department in 2013, 2018, 2020, and the Intercultural Champion Award by the Spring Institute 2020.
“I have built in silo and areas of innovation for the past 8 years in APS and have seen great impact by building systems with multiple stakeholders, rather than top down. Each piece of my work is informed by some structure, theory, or practice I have seen and then brought back to my community to implement in our context. I see this as an opportunity to be further inspired, but also become more strategic. The American Recovery Act has brought many new resources to schools, and I want to ensure the work I lead is as open as possible. Additionally, I am going to be asked to do much larger scale work in the coming years to expand the systems I have created and a community of thought partners would be incredibly supportive as I learn and grow in my leadership journey.”