Kevin Macpherson is an Improvement Specialist on WestEd’s improvement science team and works within the National Center for Systemic Improvement. Macpherson builds the capacity of special education leaders across the country by facilitating communities of practice, providing direct technical assistance, and developing tools for local and state leadership.
He started his career as a Teach for America corps member and has spent more than a decade in K–12 education. Prior to joining WestEd, Macpherson was the Associate Director of Special Education at KIPP in Northern California. In that role, he codified regionwide special education operations, streamlined data systems, and spearheaded a continuous improvement initiative for high school special education.
Macpherson combines his experience as a practitioner and researcher to support teams to empathize, reimagine, and redesign systems within and around schools to promote equitable outcomes for all learners, particularly students with disabilities.
Macpherson earned his PhD in special education from the University of California, Berkeley, where he researched social-psychological factors, including student motivation.