Your browser is unsupported

We recommend using the latest version of IE11, Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

Photo of Yang-Clayton, Kathleen

Kathleen Yang-Clayton

Senior Fellow

Clinical Associate Professor/Associate Dean, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Public Administration

Contact

Building & Room:

MC 278 AEH

Address:

400 S Peoria Street, 2109 AEH, MC 278

Office Phone:

312.505.2336

About

Dr. Kathleen Yang-Clayton - joined the faculty in the Department of Public Administration, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois-Chicago in 2017 after extensive experience in legislative advocacy and voter education, engagement and mobilization. Prior to joining UIC, she led voting rights and voter mobilization work for Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Chicago where she helped to pass landmark legislation expanding voting rights and strengthening election systems in Illinois. She is a Research Fellow at the Great Cities Institute and a member of several national initiatives that integrate public administration and racial equity together from the Kettering Foundation, National League of Cities and the International City/County Management Association. Her current work focuses on the operationalization of racial equity practices inside of large public organizations that increase the public's trust in government and improves government performance, especially but not exclusively in historically marginalized communities. She was appointed associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion at her college in 2021.

Selected Grants

City of Evanston, IL, Operationalizing Racial Equity Inside City Operations, $50,000 award, FY21, Principal Investigator

Illinois Department of Human Services, IL, Census 2020 Technical Assistance Project, $870,000 total award/$419,000 direct, FY21 renewal award, $255,000, Co-Principal Investigator

Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement, Faculty Research Award, Creating Census Ambassadors for UIC Census Engagement, $20,000 award, Co-Principal Investigator

The Forest Preserves of Cook County, Training for the Racial Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, Cook County, IL, $14,000 award FY19 , $41,000 award FY20, Principal Investigator

Service to Community

Board member, City Bureau, 2018 to 2020

Board member, CHANGE IL, 2018-2020

Board member, Center for New Democratic Practices, 2018 to present

Education

PhD in Sociology - The University of Chicago
M.S. in Natural Resource and Agricultural Economics - The University of Arizona

Professional Memberships

Member, American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), current
Member, Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA), current
Member, Public Administration Theory Network, current
Member, Chicago Civic Collaboratory, 2018
Member, Edgar Fellow, 2014

Selected Presentations

"Addressing COVID-19: Fostering Equity In and Out of the Classroom" Webinar, Co-Sponsored by the American Society for Public Administration and NASPAA. June 4, 2020.

Dismantling White Supremacy in Public Service Organizations and Society.” Webinar, American Society for Public Administration. June 17, 2020

Racial Equity From Agency wide Initiatives to Social Service Programs.” Webinar, University of Illinois Extension Local Government Education Series. July 16, 2020.

2018. Interview, Channel 2 CBS Chicago, March 28, 2018, “The Question of Citizenship and the Census

2018. Panel organizer, Midwest Public Administration Conference, May 29, 2018, “Racial Equity Impact Analyses in Chicago: Lessons from Schools and Transportation projects”

2017. Speaker, Deliberative Democracy Consortium’s Research and Practitioner Meeting, October 20, 2017, UIC, “The promise of deliberative democracy in school governance in Chicago”

2016. WGN-CLTV Interview on voting rights - August 2016

Research Currently in Progress

Utilizing Inclusion to Improve Policy Outcomes: The Intersection between Racial Equity Impact Analysis and Public Administration

The Limits of Representative Democracy in Micro-level Administrative and Policy Spheres: The case of Local School Councils in Chicago Public Schools