Kevin S. Walker

National Head Start Conference Featured Walker Keynote

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Washington University in St. Louis, graduate Total Quality Schools, a joint certificate program of the John M. Olin School of Business, Masters in Business Administration and the George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Masters in Social Welfare. Guest lecturer, and student supervisor, 1996-2001

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.

Webster Groves High School, Webster Groves, MO, elected Student Body President,1979. Inducted into the Webster Groves High School Wall of Fame, 2007.

Head Start Conference Featured Walker Keynote

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. 

Narrative Background Information

Kevin Walker is the parent of four public school children and the founder of Project Appleseed. Mr. Walker has over 30 years of local, state and national experience as a public policy professional and community organizer. 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. 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. (Pictured below: Kevin Walker and Academy Award nominated actress, Kathleen Turner, at Hands Across America, May 26th, 1986, below the Arch in 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.)

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.

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.

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.