Kate Wegmann
Associate Professor, MSW Program Director
Contact
(217) 244-2840 kwegmann@illinois.eduSchool of Social Work
1010 W. Nevada St.
Urbana, IL 61801
Office:2121
Courses
SOCW 410B: Social Welfare Pol and Svcs
SOCW 519A: Public School Policy/Services
Education
Kate Wegmann received her PhD in Social Work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her studies included a pre-doctoral fellowship at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Germany as part of the Transatlantic Consortium on Global Education and Development, funded by the European Union and the United States Department of Education. She received her Master’s degree in Social Work (Macro and Community Practice) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Bachelor’s degree in Education from the University of Wisconsin—Madison.
Research
Dr. Wegmann conducts school-based social work research focused on social and environmental barriers to academic achievement and children’s general well-being. She is particularly interested in the role that stereotyping plays in the “achievement gaps” between different groups of students and how this knowledge can be leveraged for both prevention and intervention.
Dr. Wegmann is currently working on a qualitative project exploring elementary school children’s perceptions of stereotyping in the school setting and their relationships to learning and achievement. She is also conducting quantitative analysis of a school-based intervention to reduce the effects of stereotype threat in a diverse middle school and evaluating the effects of school-based mental health services on academic achievement and behavior in six high-needs urban elementary schools.
Feature article:
Gerstmann, Evan (2020, October) The Evidence Strongly Suggests That Teachers Over-Punish Black Students. Forbes Magazine