Kathleen M. Murphy, Ph.D Bio

Principal Researcher

American Institutes for Research

Kathleen M. Murphy, Ph.D., is a principal researcher at American Institutes for Research, www.AIR.org. She is Principal Investigator for the Center on Knowledge Translation for Disability and Rehabilitation Research, (Center on KTDRR), and the Center on Knowledge Translation for Employment Research, (KTER Center), both funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR). The Center on KTDRR carries out training, dissemination, utilization, and technical assistance activities to increase NIDILRR grantees’ and others’ application of knowledge translation principles in their outreach to their target audiences. The KTER Center’s current area of focus is an intervention study of knowledge brokering in vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies. Supervisors are offered training to serve as research liaisons, who can then promote the use of research among their staff, with the goal of improving employment outcomes for adults with autism and transition-aged youth. In addition to this engagement in KT science, Murphy leads a research portfolio of projects on workplace accommodations and VR for individuals diagnosed with cancer, in collaboration with the Southwest Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Center and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.