Catherine M. Harned

“Poverty,” Catherine M. Harned says, “is a full-time job,” and Kay has spent her career at NIU directing community-based studies involving poor and minority women. As a senior research associate in the Center for Governmental Studies, Kay consistently has crossed the boundaries of department and college to find collaborators with similar interests. She has devoted her career to policy analyses that demonstrate the effect of political choices, social change and economic trends on the lives of those living in poverty. Most recently, Kay used a grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to start “Concord College.” The program for African-American women in a Rockford housing project provides residents with mental health counseling, a computer lab and GED tutoring. According to her nominators, Kay is one of the best feminist investigators around because she is able to translate her research into education and programming that have transformative capabilities.