Dr. Margaret Walker is a visual artist, art educator, and is a clinical associate professor of art education and arts integration at University of MD, College Park. She holds a PhD in Art & Art Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, an MS in Deaf Education, and a BS in Art studio/Art education. Dr. Walker coordinates and advises the MEd programs in Art Education and in Arts Integration, and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in both areas. She has taught art education courses at universities in New York, Maryland and Ireland, and she keeps an active art education research, publishing, and presenting record. Her art has been exhibited in shows around the US. Research interests focus on community-based art education, contemporary arts-based pedagogies, and socially engaged arts practices. Most recently, her work has been exhibited in Baltimore, NYC, VA and Washington, DC. Dr. Walker’s studio practice is deeply based in the art process and allowing the medium to direct the concept and final outcome. Trained as an oil painter, her recent work explores the familial connection to traditional hand work and materials, reinterpreted in a contemporary art context. She is also interested in artmaking as a collaborative act, and has recently been involved with large collaborative pieces focused on artmaking as activism. In addition to her teaching and studio work, Dr. Walker recently co-wrote Community-based Art Education Across the Lifespan: Finding Common Ground, published with Teachers College Press.