Photo of Kara McBride
Dr. Kara McBride
Senior Education Specialist

Dr. Kara McBride works in the areas of teacher training, curriculum design, and online and distance learning. The online teacher training courses and MOOCs that she designed for the U.S. Department of State OPEN program have been completed by more than 30,000 participants from over 100 countries. In her capacity as the headquarters English specialist for QITABI 2, a USAID-funded project in Lebanon that targets literacy, math, and social and emotional learning (SEL), Dr. McBride and her team worked with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education to create UDL- and SEL-aligned teaching and learning materials for both in-person and distance learning, grades 1-6. Lessons learned from that process are informing the design of an upcoming in-person teacher exchange on incorporating SEL into English instruction. Dr. McBride is also currently supporting the USAID-funded Uzbekistan Youth Employment Skills (YES) activity.. Dr. McBride serves as co-chair for the Education for Development workgroup for the Society for International Development U.S. chapter (SID-US). Before coming to World Learning, Dr. McBride was a tenured professor in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Saint Louis University, where she served as director of both the basic Spanish program and, later, the Spanish MA program. Dr. McBride holds a doctorate degree in second language acquisition and teaching from the University of Arizona, a master’s degree in applied linguistics – TESOL from Indiana University, a master’s degree in Spanish and Latin American studies from Purdue University, and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Oregon. Her publications include journal articles and book chapters on online task design, interculturality, and language learning. She is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and currently actively learning American Sign Language.