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an advocate for parents and
families engaged in the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness in
America’s public schools.
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Founder & president
Like President Barack Obama, Kevin Walker began working as a community organizer in the early 1980's. Mr. Walker is a leading advocate of public school parents in the United States. Mr. Walker is a national award winning organizer and public policy professional and has 30 years of local, state and national experience. He is the parent of four public school graduates and the founder of Project Appleseed. (Above, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Project Appleseed President Kevin Walker).
Selected Top Ten People In American Education during the last decade of the 20th century. According to the Teacher Magazine 10th anniversary issue in 1999, "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.
Created
National
Parental
Involvement Day in 1994 & Public
School
Volunteer
Week
in
1997, to
provide opportunities in which parents can volunteer in
their local public schools. In 2008 he created National
Family Fitness Week to promote physical activities and healthy eating for students and their
families. Organized over seven million parents in 10,000 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). 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. 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.  click image to enlarge
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'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. Pictured above: The
Reverand
Jesse
Jackson
and
Kevin
Walker
at
the
Grantmakers
for
Education Conference in Chicago. EDUCATION
University of Kansas, Lawrence,
studied
political science and American studies, endorsed by the University Daily Kansan and
elected Student Body President
in 1983. Unversity of Kansas School
of Law, law library assistant, 1982-84.
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. 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 30 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. Mr. Walker can only accept invitations to speak at events in which a contribution is made to Project Appleseed prior to the event: Fees
& TravelKeynote Address $ 6,500.00 Half Day Event $ 8,000.00 Full Day Event $10,000.00 Fees for Non Travel Skype $ 1,000.00 Conference Calls $ 500.00 Half of a non-refundable contribution is collected at the time Mr. Walker is booked for the event. The contribution guarantees the date will be reserved for you on Mr. Walker's calendar. Expenses for Mr. Walker are paid by Project Appleseed. For an agreement to book Mr. Walker to speak at your event, contact Melissa Earls, executive assistant to the president, at (314) 292-9760 or email melissapearls@projectappleseed.org Narrative Background Information Kevin 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. Justin is a compensation specialist in the human resouces division of St. Louis University.
His son Austin is a 2006 graduate of the University of Kansas with a degree in Political Science and a minor in Arabic. Austin is a policy analyst and civil rights director at the National Council on Independent Living in Washington D.C. His oldest daughter Kate is a 2007 Early Childhood graduate of Webster University and teaches kindergarten in the Brentwood School District.
Daughter
Olivia is a part-time college student and an assistant at a commodities
brokerage in St. Louis (Pictured left: Austin
Walker with Rep. John Lewis, D. GA, in Washington D.C.).
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 in 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. A review by a university judicial board determined that he received the most votes. 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 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
created National
Parental
Involvement Day in 1994 & Public
School
Volunteer
Week
in
1997, to
provide opportunities in which parents can volunteer in
their local public schools. Project Appleseed's national
celebrations of family
engagement in schools - are recognized by the national news media and
the majority of state departments of education across the country. (Pictured above: Kevin Walker
and Academy Award nominated actress,
Kathleen Turner, at Hands Across America, May 26th, 1986, below the
Arch
in St. Louis.) Through Project Appleseed Walker has organized over seven million parents in 10,000 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. |
 Public education's Johnny Appleseed plants parental involvement and encourages it to grow  A conversation with Kevin Walker, St. Louis public school parent and leader of a national parents group, often boils down to this: The hope for improving public schools rests on parents. At Walker's dining room table at his home in University City, parents talk with Walker, about how to improve student achievement, keep schools safe and have their concerns heard. The same thing happens with Walker at church, at school and even on the Web. For it is cyberspace that has enabled Walker, parent of four children and a former political organizer, to begin a grass-roots organization that has reached parents in schools across the United States. The group is called Project Appleseed. Walker envisions parent groups sprouting from the organization as apple trees sprouted from seeds Johnny Appleseed planted around the nation two centuries ago. The Internet has allowed Walker's group to share equal space with the PTA, the National Education Association and other groups working to improve schools. Project Appleseed's Web site and Walker's efforts have brought him national attention, including a feature in the Teacher magazine as one of 10 people who most shaped U.S. education during the 1990's. For more than a decade, school reform has
captured the attention of business and government leaders. The '90s
became the decade of standards, tests and report cards on schools.
School accountability became a staple of speeches.
"Educators may say, 'It's about children.' I disagree. It's about parents," he said. Some parents don't even help their children with homework, much less volunteer at their school. At the same time, other parents sit on curriculum and school management committees. And some volunteer as reading tutors, playground aides or members of neighborhood safety patrols. Walker envisions marketing parental involvement to the American people, not just in cyberspace, but on radio and television. Having a parent go to school and volunteer becomes the first step. Beyond that, parents need to organize in groups to hold schools to higher standards, he said. Walker wants these groups to work on parents' image, starting with what he calls the perception of parents on television as bumpkins. Parents, Walker said, should be able to choose a public school or publicly financed charter school, although he opposes vouchers, which use government money to pay private school tuition. 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.
But today Walker says his old neighborhood school, Ashland, has
improved so much that he would send his own children there if they
lived in that part of St. Louis.
(Pictured
above is Rock and Roll Music legend Chuck
Berry who plays at Blueberry Hill in the University City Loop near Mr.
Walker's home. Click to enlarge.) 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, 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. Kevin Walker's classmates expected him to seek political office. He served as student body president at Webster Groves High School and studied political science at the University of Kansas. He married Susan Chopin, his high school sweetheart and great-granddaughter of writer Kate Chopin. Walker dropped out of college in his junior year to work for Walter Mondale's unsuccessful presidential campaign. He organized the marketing in Missouri for the Hands Across America project to call attention to the homeless. He worked for Michael Roberts' St. Louis mayoral campaign and later the movement to draft Mario Cuomo for president in 1992. But his heart was with his children and the schools they attended. He served as chair o a management council at his children's elementary school. He visits the school to make sure the bathrooms are clean. "As a man, I flinch when people call me Mr. Mom," said Walker, who stands well over 6 feet tall and who weighs more than 220 pounds. "I never intended to do the grocery shopping, the cooking or being on the phone with superintendents or CEOs who can hear dishes clattering or children talking in the background." In 1991, he helped organize a citizens for
public education group in University City. A year later, the group
became a chapter of Parents for Public Schools, a national group begun
in 1989 in Jackson, Miss., as part of an effort to stem flight from the
public schools.
In 1993, Walker began Project Appleseed as a pilot program for Parents for Public Schools. Walker broke away from Parents for Public Schools on a friendly basis a few months later. Shortly after that, Walker was invited to discuss education issues with presidential advisers at the White House. At the time, his group called for parents to volunteer to help at school and with their children at home. The group wanted the publication of school performance information, as well as test scores and budget information, something Missouri education officials have since required. Through its Web site, Project Appleseed makes available a Parental Involvement Pledge. In the pledge, parents promise to volunteer at least five hours in the schools each semester and to spend at least 15 minutes a night reading with their children or helping them with homework or other activities. Part of the pledge should be returned to school. The other part should be posted on a refrigerator to serve as a reminder to parents. The pledge asks parents to pick from among dozens of interests, including helping in class, supervising students working on computers, doing clerical work or becoming a neighborhood home if students need a safe place to go. The Appleseed Web site tells parents they don't need the permission of school districts to start a parent group. Project Appleseed had a less cooperative relationship with University City school officials, who balked years ago at distributing a fund-raising solicitation for the parents group. Later, parent pledges signed by more than 1,400 people languished without follow-up in school offices. Schools that get federal Title I money must use some form of parental pledges. In the next years, Walker's
goal
is to raise $25 million, for a campaign to increase parental
involvement in across urban regions and entire states. Walker would
like to recruit 10 million parents to volunteer in the nation's Walker thinks many parents are ready to step
up. Adapted from an article written by Carolyn Bower of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch |
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Copyright 2010 PACE /
Project Appleseed, the National Campaign for Public School Improvement,
a 501 (c) (3) Nonprofit Missouri Corporation. Parents Advocating
Challenging Education, Project Appleseed, The National Campaign for
Public School Improvement, Leave No Parent Behind, Leave No Dollar
Behind, The Parental Involvement Pledge, Family Involvement Pledge, The
Parental Involvement Report Card, National Parental Involvement Day,
Public School Volunteer Week, Organized Parental Involvement, are
trademarks of the National Campaign for Public School Improvement. All
Rights Reserved.
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Kevin S. Walker 
Advised the
White House Office for
Domestic Policy on the
parental involvement provisions of 
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, 
Webster Groves High School, Webster
Groves, MO, elected Student Body President,1979.
Inducted
into
the
