Karen L. Mapp

Karen Mapp is a professor of practice at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Over the past 25 years, her research and practice focus has been the cultivation of partnerships among families, community members, and educators that support student achievement and school improvement. Mapp holds a doctorate and master’s of education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, a master’s in education from Southern Connecticut State University, and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

From 2008 to 2022, Mapp served as the faculty director of the HGSE Education, Policy and Management (EPM) master's program. She is a founding member of the District Leaders Network on Family and Community Engagement and serves on the boards of the National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement (NAFSCE), and The Hyams Foundation (Boston).  From 2010 to 2023, she served as board member and six years as board chair of the Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL). 

From 2011 to 2013, Mapp served as a consultant on family and community engagement to the United States Department of Education (USDOE) in the Office of Innovation and Improvement where, in collaboration with the USDOE, she developed the first version of the Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships.   

Mapp joined the HGSE faculty in January 2005 after serving for 18 months as the deputy superintendent for family and community engagement for the Boston Public Schools (BPS). While working with the BPS, she continued to fulfill her duties as president of the Institute for Responsive Education (IRE).  She joined IRE in 1997 as project director, was appointed vice-president in May 1998, and served as president from September 1998 to December 2004.  

Mapp is the author and co-author of several articles and books about the role of families and community members in the work of student achievement and school improvement including: A New Wave Of Evidence: The Impact of School, Family and Community Connections on Student Achievement (2002); Beyond the Bake Sale: The Essential Guide to Family-School Partnerships (2010); Debunking the Myth of the Hard to Reach Parent (2010); Title I and Parent Involvement: Lessons from the Past, Recommendations for the Future (2011); A Match on Dry Grass: Community Organizing as a Catalyst for School Reform (2011); Partners in Education: A Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships (2014); From Private Citizens to Public Actors: The Development of Parent Leaders through Community Organizing (2015); Powerful Partnerships: A Teacher’s Guide to Engaging Families for Student Success (2017); Embracing a New Normal: Toward a More Liberatory Approach to Family Engagement (2021); and Everyone Wins!: The Evidence for Family-School Partnerships and Implications for Practice (2022). 

Mapp is president and CEO of Karen L. Mapp & Associates, which focuses on building leadership and organizational capacity for effective engagement and partnership.