Kathy Look Howery is a doctoral candidate at the University of Alberta, an educational consultant and a sessional lecturer at several Alberta universities. Her doctoral research draws upon hermeneutic phenomenology to seek to understand what is it like for young people with complex communication needs (CCN) to speak with speech generating devices.
Kathy began her career over thirty years ago focusing on finding ways for students with the most complex needs share their voices in the world. Since that time, Kathy has worked in a variety of settings including the I CAN Centre for Assistive Technology at the Glenrose Hospital in Edmonton. From 2004 to 2008, Kathy was seconded to work for Alberta Education as the lead for the Assistive Technology for Learning Initiative.
Kathy has taught graduate level courses in Assistive Technology, Learning and Development, Special Education, Universal Design for Learning, and Augmentative and Alternative Communication. She is a board member of the Alberta Chapter of the Council for Exceptional Children. In addition, she has held positions on the Inclusive Learning Network of the International Society of Technology in Education (ILN/ISTE), and on the leadership team of the Universal Design for Learning -Implementation Research Network (UDL-IRN).
Kathy provides ongoing consultation to Alberta school jurisdictions in the areas of UDL, and supporting children and youth with CCN in developing language and literacy skills. Most recently Kathy is working under contract with Alberta Education as part of the Provincial Wide Low Incidence Collaborative Supports team with primary responsibility in the area of complex communication needs.