Fielding Appoints Dr. Katherine McGraw as Director of the Marie Fielder Center

Fielding is proud to announce that Katherine McGraw, Ph.D., is now the Director of the Marie Fielder Center for Democracy, Leadership, and Education.

The Marie Fielder Center encourages research that addresses today’s educational and social problems. Dr. McGraw takes over the role after the passing of Dr. Orlando L. Taylor earlier this year. As a long-term mentee and colleague of Dr. Taylor, Dr. McGraw is honored to take on this role, in addition to her current role of Associate Provost of Research, Extramural Funding, and Faculty Development.

Drs. Orlando Taylor and Katie McGraw

“This appointment is so significant to me because it represents an opportunity to ensure a lasting legacy for two people whose lives and work made a difference for society,” Dr. McGraw said. “Marie Fielder, of course, whose work brought communities together through dialogue and education; but also, Orlando Taylor, who was one of my closest colleagues and friends for almost 30 years. It is daunting to follow in his footsteps, but I am so honored to carry forward his work in this way.

“One of the most distinctive things for me about Dr. Taylor’s mentorship was his ability to see internal potential and external opportunities for every one of his mentees, or really for everyone he met,” she said. “Often, he saw potential and opportunity that individuals would not have identified for themselves. I can only aspire to be that kind of a mentor for others, but I do hope to be able to support the current and future Fielder Fellows so that they can pursue every possible opportunity in their own work.”

Dr. McGraw will focus on continuing the work of the Center as a multidisciplinary space for Fielding’s faculty, students, alums, and colleagues in education, across all disciplines to engage in research, public discourse, and advocacy on the advancement of social democracy, leadership, and education. This research and policy center promotes Marie Fielder’s principles of transformational change for social justice as exemplified through Dr. Marie Fielder’s work, her philosophy, and her contributions to equity, education, and justice.

“I have a number of plans and ideas, but it will also be key to engage with the stakeholders who have led and participated in the Center’s work, so my first plan is to meet with the Fielder Advisory Committee and the current Fielder Fellows to share my thoughts,” Dr. McGraw said. “Supporting the Fellows as students and as alums will be a central part of my vision of the Center, as it was for Dr. Taylor, and I hope to engage in some new ways to do so. I am also exploring ways to preserve and extend the Center’s work on the history of Marie Fielder’s work and the ways that it has influenced democracy, leadership, and education today.”

About Dr. Katherine McGraw

Katie McGraw, Ph.D.

Dr. Katherine (Katie) McGraw is Associate Provost for Research, Extramural Funding, and Faculty Development at Fielding Graduate University, where she is responsible for senior-level leadership and vision for the support and expansion of disciplinary and interdisciplinary research, scholarship, creative activities, and grant and contract activities. Her portfolio includes the Fielding Graduate University Library, Institutional Review Board, and Office of Sponsored Programs (for which she previously served as Director). At Fielding, the grants portfolio has increased from less than $100,000 to over $4 million in federal awards from 2016 to 2022 (National Science Foundation, Corporation for National and Community Service).

Dr. McGraw was previously Associate Vice President for Sponsored Programs at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology where she established the institution’s first sponsored programs office and grew extramural funding to over $1 million per year. For 10 years, she worked as Grants Administrator and Director of Special Projects at Howard University, in the Office of the Vice Provost for Research and Dean of the Graduate School, working with over 300 graduate faculty members and other faculty across the university where she was engaged with over $10 million in successful grant submissions.  She received her bachelor’s degree from Yale University, master’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Georgetown University, and her Ph.D. in English literature from Howard University.