Kathryn Parker, Ph.D.

Dr. Kathryn Parker received her Ph.D. at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. Her doctoral work is focused on the development of an enhanced model for program evaluation, which examines the value of measuring cognitive "readiness" when determining the merit of a continuing education program. She received her Master of Arts in Measurement and Evaluation from OISE in 1999. Kathryn has presented her work at various national and international conferences. She has presented posters illustrating her research on the stages of change model and the use of this model in program evaluation. She has also conducted numerous workshops on statistical techniques, research methodologies, needs assessment in continuing education, outcome measurement, measuring readiness to change and program accountability.

Kathryn joined The Michener Institute for Applied Health Sciences in 2001 as the Director of Institutional Research and now serves as the Director of Research and Program Evaluation at Michener. Her current position at The Michener Institute involves aligning internal research initiatives with The Michener Institute's vision of becoming a leader in advancing health through applied learning. The foci of her work currently include integrating research into teaching and learning, committing to furthering the research agenda in applied health and strengthening our internal research capacity: specifically, on promoting and supporting educational, institutional and applied research initiatives undertaken by staff and faculty across the Institute. She also has a keen interest in the construction and measurement of program performance and outcome indicators as well as evolving the practice of theory-based program evaluations. She has focused much of her scholarly work on the implication of measuring change readiness for the assessment of learning needs and development and evaluation of continuing education events. Her primary interests include the cognitive/effective determinants of change, innovative methods of program evaluation and impact assessment of continuing education in the applied health professions.

Dr. Parker is a member of the CIHR Team in Community Care and Health Human Resources.

Dr. Parker was involved in the following M-THAC projects as an M-THAC researcher:

• The Applied Health Human Resource Research Unit: Measuring Ontario's Needs

Contact Information:
kparker@michener.ca