Kim Vachon

UC Santa Cruz
PhD Student
kvachon@ucsc.edu

Kim Vachon is a Ph.D. student in the Education department with a designated emphasis in Sociology at UC-Santa Cruz. Her research explores how teachers develop a racial consciousness in teacher education, antiracist pedagogy utilized by teacher educators, and how state and program policies provide or confine teacher preparation as an environment for antiracist work. Her dedication to this work arose from her professional history as a teacher and clinical counselor in educational and clinical settings mainly in Chicago. These experiences included elementary and high schools, an LGBTQ+ community center, a housing program for young adults experiencing homelessness, after-school programs, and camps. The blend of working in education and counseling in Chicago provided Kim with alarming insight into the interconnected web of systemic discrimination impacting today’s youth. It is her aim to work towards dismantling this inequity while pursuing her doctoral degree and beyond. In addition to being a part of the exciting network of CTERIN, Kim is currently the GOLD fellow at the UC Center Sacramento, where she serves as a mentor for undergraduate students and interns at the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC). At the CTC, she will be working on a project that considers issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in relation to state and teacher education program standards and teaching performance expectations.