Kate Daly Rolander

I serve as the Director of Literacy Programming and the Workforce Education Specialist at the Resource Center in VCU’s Center for Teacher Leadership. In my role as manager, I support VALRC’s specialists through intentional collaboration, a focus on communication, and advocacy for the field in which we work, adult education. I also work with our primary funder, the Virginia Department of Education, our partner team in VCU’s Center for Teacher Leadership, and our many partners to expand our reach and strengthen our impact for teachers across the state.

As the Workforce Education Specialist at the Resource Center, I support Virginia’s development and implementation of career pathways programs, facilitation of teacher leadership professional learning communities, and instructional design for the state’s IET programs, including PluggedInVA.

Since moving to Virginia ten years ago, I have taught English learners at Reynolds Community College, with Commonwealth Catholic Charities, and ReEstablish Richmond, a local refugee resettlement program. Before then, I taught English language writing and grammar to adults at Mesa Community College in the Phoenix, Arizona area and English composition at Northern Arizona University. I also taught English as a Foreign Language in Ukraine.

I earned my doctorate in education in 2018 from Virginia Commonwealth University, and my research centers on the ways adult learners interact and behave in their many communities and how those interactions shape identity, motivation, and learning. I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Spanish from the University of Arizona in Tucson and a Master’s degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from Northern Arizona University.

I love taking very long walks with my dog, my husband Jeff, and my little daughter Evie. I also enjoy running when I can, reading great books, traveling to new places, playing the ukulele, catching up with friends, hiking, and being outdoors whenever I can.