Katie McGeehan, PhD, MS

Senior Consultant

Katie.McGeehan@learningforaction.com



Katie McGeehan is a community and cultural psychologist with extensive experience with community-based organizations in socially, economically, and ethnically diverse communities across the country as a consultant, evaluator, researcher, educator, counselor, and scholar. She has experience with culturally responsive research; community interventions; implementation science; evaluation, including quantitative and qualitative methods, formative, summative, and empowerment evaluation; qualitative & quantitative data collection and analysis; interviews, focus group & workshop facilitation; strategic planning; capacity-building; needs and resource assessments; program development and implementation; community engagement; nonprofits; faith-based initiatives; and curriculum development. Katie has content expertise in mental health; education; culturally responsive, community-based research; and disaster management. She is committed to leveraging the power of applied research to build stronger, more resilient communities.

Prior to joining the LFA team, Katie led the evaluation of a federally-funded Children’s Mental Health Initiative System of Care grant for a program providing services to young women who are survivors of trauma in the state of Hawaiʹi. She worked for six years as a consultant to charitable organizations in the Greater Philadelphia area prior to pursuing her doctoral degree. Her experience as an educator includes teaching at the secondary and post-secondary levels. She is a published author, with results of her research in the fields of disasters and trauma appearing in peer-reviewed journals.

Katie has conducted community-based systems-level disaster research in the Hawaiian Islands, American Samoa, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. She served as a Mercy Volunteer teaching high school on the Navajo Nation from 2001-2003. She currently serves as a board member of Insight PA Cyber Charter School.

Education

  • Doctor of Philosophy, Community and Cultural Psychology, University of Hawaiʹi at Mānoa 

  • Master of Arts, Community and Cultural Psychology, University of Hawaiʹi at Mānoa

  • Master of Science, Counseling and Human Relations, Villanova University

  • Bachelor of Science, Psychology, Loyola University Maryland

Selected Project Experience

  • Missouri Foundation for Health Alive and Well Activating Communities Evaluation

  • CA CASA evaluation and learning partner

  • Mindful Life Project learning partner

  • YWCA Golden Gate Silicon Valley strategic learning partner

  • Pew Fund Grantmaking Strategy Learning Partner

  • Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation K-12 Strategy Partner

  • Next Door Solutions to Community Violence Strategic Learning Partner

  • Schusterman Family Foundation Fellowship and Alumni evaluation and learning partner

  • Kaiser Permanente Trauma-Informed Care and Resilience grants initiatives evaluation and learning partner

  • Genentech Futurelab STEM education initiative evaluation and learning partner

  • PBS Hawai'i HIKI NŌ youth media initiative evaluation and sustainability partner

  • Bay Area Trauma-Informed System of Care Trauma Transformed systems change initiative evaluation and learning partner

  • SF CASA evaluation and learning system

  • San Francisco Department of Public Health, Behavioral Health Services’ Wellness Management and Recovery Program Pilot evaluation

  • San Mateo County Center for Learning Analytics evaluation and learning partner

  • Marin Community Foundation Early Childhood Education Quality Improvement initiative evaluation

  • Packard Foundation Southern States Reproductive and Population Health organizational effectiveness initiative evaluation

  • Center for Effective Philanthropy Subscriber Assessment Tools evaluation

  • Sonoma County Upstream Investments Policy Initiative, collective impact evaluation