Kevin S. Walker
Founder & President SELECTED ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Top Ten People In American Education during the last decade of the 20th century. According to Teacher Magazine, "Don't look at the two 'education presidents', the dozen or so 'education governors', or other typical powers that be," say the editors of Teacher Magazine (publishers of Education Week). "To identify the real heroes in education look behind the dominant trends of the '90s--the advance of technology, curriculum wars and teacher quality, for example--to find out who truly shaped education in the decade." Among the hundreds of innovators and activists they identified, only ten were tapped as "the most influential Americans who shaped education in the last decade of the 20th century." Named as one of those exceptional leaders is St. Louis parent and Project Appleseed founder, Kevin Walker.
Recipient of Parenting Magazine's Parenting Leader Award, March 2000. Parenting's 7th annual awards honoring seven men and women who are working to improve the lives of children, recognized Mr. Walker and his efforts to improve public education in the United States. Mr. Walker shares the award with United States Senator, Barbara Boxer, and tennis great, Andre Agassi.
Recipient of the 2001 Focus St. Louis "What's Right With The Region" award in the category of Creating Quality Educational Opportunities. The Focus St. Louis Award recognizes organizations, individuals, and initiatives that have made a significant impact on St. Louis.
Advised the White House Office for Domestic Policy on the parental involvement provisions of Section 1118 of the reauthorization of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Schools Act (Improving America's Schools Act of 1994). Passed into law by the United States Congress in 1994 - with bipartisan support - and renewed by Congress in 2002 under No Child Left Behind.
Organized over five million parents in 3,500 school districts to become involved in their public schools.
Proposed and passed legislation in Missouri that requires schools to publish school performance data or 'Report Card' annually (Senate Bill 380 passed into law by the Missouri Legislature 1993).
Received the endorsement of the national presidents and executive directors of the National Education Association, National Head Start Association, Parents As Teachers, and National Drop Out Prevention Center.
Successfully raised millions in funds and maintained personal relationships with the chief executive officers of Fortune 500 companies for the purpose of organizing parents to improve their public schools.
Mr. Walker has been quoted and featured in a braod range of local and national media publications and broadcast news shows such as NBC's TODAY Show, CBS Radio, National Public Radio, Education Week, Parenting magazine, Teacher magazine, USA Today, the New York Times, New York Newsday, Atlanta Constitution, Des Monies Register, Kansas City Star, KSDK News Channel Five, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Riverfront Times - among many, many more.
Mr. Walker's political leadership includes service with the Democratic National Committee (DNC) / John Kerry for President, as a GOTV Director in Iowa in 2004. He was the national director of the Mario Cuomo for President Draft Committee in 1992. He served as Director of Marketing for Earth Day in 1990 and Hands Across America in 1986. He began professional political organizing with the Democratic National Committee (DNC) as the political director for the Congressional District, Kansas City, MO. in 1984 for former Vice President Walter Mondale.
Guest Speaker
Good keynote speakers are very hard to find. Awful keynote speakers are unfortunately very common and dreaded by conference participants everywhere. You can usually tell if a keynote speaker is going to shine in less than a couple of minutes. With a great keynote speaker there's an immediate total emotional and mental connection, a stage presence, an energy which captivates, the whole auditorium lights up.People relate to people, and at the end of the day that's what really counts.
Mr. Walker can only accept invitations to speak at events in which a contribution is made to Project Appleseed prior to the event ($4,000.00 for corporations and $2,500.00 for nonprofit and government organizations). Expenses for Mr. Walker are paid by Project Appleseed. If this works with your budget, please contact Project Appleseed to confirm the date and contribution. lizscavuzzo@projectappleseed.org.
Kevin Walker relates to people and he leads the movement to organize America's 50 million public school parents. He is the founder of Project Appleseed and has 25 years of local, state and national experience as a public policy and community engagement professional. His expertise in organizing parental involvement has earned him both local and national honors. He is available for speaking engagements at conferences on education, parenting, and politics.
Click here for a Podcast interview with Mr. Walker.
EDUCATION
Washington University in St. Louis, participant, graduate, and guest lecturer in Total Quality Schools, a joint program of the John M. Olin School of Business and the George Warren Brown School of Social Work, 1996-2001
Attended the University of Kansas, Lawrence, studied political science and American studies, elected Student Body President 1983,
Webster Groves High School, Webster Groves, MO, elected Student Body President,1979. Inducted into the Webster Groves High School Wall of Fame, 2007.
Narrative Background Information
Kevin Walker is the parent of four public school children and the founder of Project Appleseed. Mr. Walker has over 25 years of local, state and national experience as a public policy and community engagement professional. His expertise in organizing parental involvement has earned him both local and national honors.
Walker was born in the City of St. Louis in 1960. Walker's parents attended St. Louis Public Schools but chose not to send their son there because of concerns about academics and safety. Walker attended St. Engelbert parochial school. When he was in fourth grade, Walker's family moved to the largely white Webster Groves School District in search of better schools. Walker's father, Sterling Walker who died in 1981, had worked his way up from a janitor at the old Down's clothing store to owner of Sterling's Mens Store at Grand Avenue and Olive Boulevard . His mother started out as a receptionist at a real estate company and recently retired as an account manager for Lucent Technologies.
Mr. Walker graduated from Webster Groves High School and served as student body president at Webster Groves High School. Today he has four children who all attended University City public schools in suburban St. Louis County. Mr. Walker's oldest son, Justin, graduated from the University of Missouri with a bachelor's degree in Business Management in 2003. His son Austin is a senior at the University of Kansas majoring in Political Science and Arabic. His oldest daughter Kate is a early childhood major at Webster University and Olivia is a sophomore at University City High School.
Mr. Walker attended the University of Kansas as a student of political science and American studies after graduating from Webster Groves High School in 1979. On campus Walker became a well known student leader serving on various University advisory boards and was elected student body president as a write-in candidate 1983. Mr. Walker shares former Vice-President Al Gore's 2000 election pain. A university recount disqualified over 100 ballots as spoiled because students made minor misspellings of "Kevin Walker". In the end he was narrowly defeated by 71 votes out of 3,500 cast. Walker left the university the following year to direct Walter Mondale's presidential campaign in Kansas City, Missouri, becoming one of the youngest political directors in the 1984 campaign. In 1986,he organized the Hands Across America (Pictured Left: Kevin Walker and Academy Award nominated actress, Kathleen Turner, at Hands Across America, May 26th, 1986, at the Arch in St. Louis) project in Missouri to call attention to the homeless. In 1992 he directed the movement to draft then New York Governor, Mario Cuomo, for President of the United States.
He withdrew from the itinerant life of politics to spend more time with his young children, he heard that his suburban St. Louis school district was inviting parents to participate in strategic planning. Walker accepted the invitation and, bitten by the reform bug, founded a small parents' group that eventually evolved into the local chapter of Parents for Public Schools(PPS). He soon became the Midwestern regional director of PPS, leading a successful lobbying campaign to force Missouri's school districts to submit an annual progress report to parents.
Mr. Walker began Project Appleseed in 1993 as a side venture for his PPS chapter. But the project quickly overshadowed the chapter. Within a few months, Walker was called to the White House to help formulate education policy with President Bill Clinton's domestic policy director.
Through Project Appleseed Walker has organized over five million parents in 3,500 school districts to become involved in their public schools. He was named One of Ten Who Shaped the Decade by Teacher Magazine. According to the September 1999 issue of Teacher Magazine, "Don't look at the two 'education presidents', the dozen or so 'education governors', or other typical powers that be," say the editors of Teacher Magazine (publishers of Education Week). "To identify the real heroes look behind the dominant trends of the '90s--the advance of technology, curriculum wars and teacher quality, for example--to find out who truly shaped education in the decade." Among the hundreds of innovators and activists they identified, only ten were tapped as, "the most influential Americans who shaped education in the last decade of the 20th century." Named as one of those exceptional leaders of the 1990s is St. Louis parent and activist Kevin Walker.
In March of 2000 Walker was the recipient of Parenting Magazine's Parenting Leader Award. Parenting's 7th annual awards honoring seven men and women who are working to improve the lives of children, recognized Mr. Walker and his efforts to improve public education in the United States. Mr. Walker shares the award with United States Senator, Barbara Boxer D-CA, and tennis great, Andre Agassi. Walker was the recipient of the 2001 Focus St. Louis "What's Right With The Region" award in the category of Creating Quality Educational Opportunities. The award recognizes organizations, individuals, and initiatives that have made a significant impact on St. Louis.
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