Kathy J. Rho currently serves as the associate director of the Mid-Career Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education and is also a visiting lecturer in the Bryn Mawr/Haverford Education Program at Bryn Mawr College.  She began her career in education teaching high school science.  In the years since, Dr. Rho has worked with a number of initiatives focused on alternative education, afterschool programming, and culturally responsive pedagogy in addition to curriculum design and professional development for teachers and system-level leaders working with youth in the juvenile justice system and institutionalized care.  She has also enjoyed mentoring teachers working in a diverse and wide range of educational contexts and at varying stages of their careers.

Dr. Rho’s current research interests focus on the influence of social identities on school leadership thinking and practice and on reflective practice, more generally, at the individual and organizational level in relation to educational reform.  Her other areas of knowledge and interest include teacher and leader education and development, school and community collaborations, youth and family social and health service access and education, and cross-cultural issues with particular focus on those involving Asian and Asian American youth.