Biography

Kate graduated from Norwell High School, in Norwell, MA in 1990. Next, she took 5 years off to seek out what she was most passionate about, then in Fall 1995 she enrolled at The University of Alabama to pursue a B.S. in Human Development and Family Studies with concentrations in Child Development and Family Development; she graduated in 1999. She then took a gap year to live and work on Martha's Vineyard. 

Kate Fletcher has been with the Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences (FYCS) since fall 2001 when she began her Master of Science degree in FYCS. Her thesis topic was Juvenile Offenders and the Impact of Youth Court and Peer Influence on Decision Making. She was the second to graduate from the inaugural FYCS graduate class in 2003.

Upon graduation, she began working for Rose Barnett, Ph.D. as the Coordinator for Research Programs and Services for the Aggressors, Victims, and Bystanders evaluation project for Palm Beach County. Fall 2004 she began adjunct lecturing in FYCS, beginning with Foundations Youth Development and teaching the same class again Spring 2005. Fall 2005 she taught Intro to Social & Economic Perspectives on the Community. Next for Summer 2006 she taught three classes. In January of 2007, Kate started as the CYFAR State Evaluation Assistant on the Florida After-School Enrichment Project (FASEP).

Beginning Summer of 2008, Kate became the State Coordinator for the FASEP. Between 2006 and 2008 she taught periodically as an adjunct lecturer for FYCS. Then in the fall of 2008, she was hired as a full-time permanent lecturer and academic advisor in FYCS; her advising responsibilities began Fall 2008, whereas her teaching responsibilities began January 2009. She has been teaching three classes each semester since Spring 2009. Kate teaches our introductory course to the Major: FYC3001, along with teaching Foundations of Youth Development. Kate and Dr. Dale Pracht created a Youth Development and Service-Learning Study Abroad Program to Galway Ireland. This study abroad program launched in the Summer of 2017.

She is very passionate about teaching, just ask any of her students. She continues to teach year-round, and also serves as an Academic Advisor to approximately 85 undergraduate students each semester. Since Fall 2007, she has been the Faculty Advisor to the FYCS Club. 

Kate is currently working on her Ph.D. in Leadership Development in Agricultural Education and Communication at UF.

Research Interests

Kate H. Fletcher’s main area of research focus is on the following questions: How does the cognitive and psychosocial development of college students change based on their participation in service-learning? How does the amount of required service-learning change the level of cognitive development of college students? How does a service-learning study abroad experience change the level of cognitive development compared to a servicelearning practicum? She uses experiential learning theory and quantitative and qualitative methods to examine cognitive and psychosocial development changes in college students. Her research concentrates on

• service-learning
• experiential learning
• psychosocial development
• cognitive development
• study abroad
• college students