Catherine Kramarczuk Voulgarides

Dr. Catherine Kramarczuk Voulgarides is an Assistant Professor at CUNY—Hunter College, a faculty affiliate at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, and a faculty affiliate of the Urban Education Program at the CUNY Graduate Center. With expertise in qualitative and mixed-methods approaches, she investigates the complex factors contributing to racial disparities in special education through a systems-level lens focused on policy compliance. Her work critically examines the limitations of legal protections in promoting equity for students with disabilities, exploring the historical, political, structural, and procedural barriers that perpetuate educational inequality. She also works in collaboration with state and local partners to inform and improve policies and practices in dynamic research to practice partnerships. Prior to her academic career, Dr. Voulgarides was as a special education teacher in New York City public schools, where she gained firsthand experience with the challenges and complexities that she continues to study to date in her career.

Dr. Catherine Kramarczuk Voulgarides has several first author peer reviewed books (1 published, 2 under contract), a co-edited book, and numerous peer reviewed articles and book chapters. Her first book, published with Teachers College Press won the American Sociological Association Disability in Society Book award in 2020. She has also secured several million dollars (over 5 million) in U.S. government and foundation grants. She is currently PI on a large multi-state systems level policy focused study examining IDEA accountability mechanisms as they relate to racial disparities in special education outcomes. She is an Associate Editor for the Review of Educational Research (RER), and an editorial board member for Multiple Voices and Exceptional Children (EC). She won the “Outstanding Reviewer of the Year,” award for RER at the 2024 American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual meeting and regularly shares her work across the country with practitioners, researchers, and policymakers.

She is also a newly appointed faculty fellow for the 2025-2026 school year with the Black, Race, and Ethnic Studies (BRES) Collaboration Hub, was recently awarded the Henry Wasser Award for Outstanding Research for Assistant Professors in CUNY (2025) and the Presidential Award for Excellence in Applied Scholarship from CUNY-Hunter (2025).