Catherine Collier

Catherine Collier

Catherine Collier, Ph.D. has over 45 years of experience in equity, cross-cultural, bilingual, and special education. Dr. Collier is a nationally recognized expert on diverse learners with learning and behavior needs. She established and directed the Chinle Valley School, Dine Bitsiis Baa Aha Yaa, bilingual services for Navajo students with severe and multiple disabilities for the Navajo Nation. She was the director of a teacher-training program, Ikayurikiit Unatet for the University of Alaska for seven years, preparing Yup'ik Eskimo paraprofessionals for certification as bilingual preschool, elementary, and special educators.

She was an itinerant (diagnostician/special education) for Child Find in remote villages in Alaska. For eight years, Dr. Collier worked with the BUENO Center for Multicultural Education, Research, and Evaluation at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where she created and directed the Bilingual Special Education Curriculum/Training project (BISECT), a nationally recognized effort. She is active in social justice activities for culturally and linguistically diverse learners and families. She started the first bilingual special education programs for the Navajo Nation and the White Mountain Apache.

She is currently the director of the national professional development project Curriculum Integration for Responsive, Cross-cultural, Language Education (CIRCLE) at Western Washington University. She works extensively with school districts on professional and program development for at-risk diverse learners. Dr. Collier provides technical assistance to university, local, and state departments of education regarding programs serving at-risk cognitively, culturally and linguistically diverse learners.

She works with national organizations to provide professional development in the intersection of cross-cultural, multilingual, diversity, special needs issues in education.