Kathleen Murphy

Kathleen M. Murphy is a managing researcher in the Employment and Economic Opportunity Program (EEOP) Area. She leads the Expanding Talent Pathways portfolio within EEOP. In that role she oversees work that focuses on improving employment outcomes for people with disabilities and others with low workforce participation rates, including initiatives that support national, state and local entities as well as business with workforce development and planning. She participates in EEOP’s leadership team with two other portfolio leads that support the EEOP Vice President, engaging in strategic planning, coordination of eminence building activities and identifying hiring needs.

Dr. Murphy is principal investigator for the Center on Knowledge Translation for Disability and Rehabilitation Research, and the Center on Knowledge Translation for Employment Research, both funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR). In this capacity, she and her AIR colleagues organize a broad set of research, training, dissemination and technical assistance activities to support the knowledge translation needs of NIDILRR grantees. She has conducted and published research related to cancer and employment in collaboration with the Southwest Americans with Disabilities Act (SWADA) Center. She also leads a project funded by AIR’s PROPEL Center focused on applying data from the National Training, Education, and Workforce Survey (NTEWS) to workforce and career planning.

Dr. Murphy has been an assistant research professor at Baylor University and a visiting assistant professor at the University of Notre Dame. Dr. Murphy was an I.I.E. Fulbright Scholar at the University of Guadalajara, Mexico, and a Rotary International Scholar at the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, Switzerland.

Related Publications:

Robert R, Andersen CR, Murphy KM, Granger TA, Scardaville MC, Medina-George SA, Nguyen V, Frieden LM. (2024). Factors contributing to financial distress in young adults with cancer: Material resources, health, and workplace. Work, 77(1):197-209. doi: 10.3233/WOR-220687. PMID: 37638461.

Murphy, K.M., Rasmussen, J., Trevino, S., Scardaville, M. (2023). Business engagement strategies for vocational rehabilitation professionals. Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, 0(0). 

Fong, C.J., Taylor, J., Berdyyeva, A., McClelland, A., Murphy, K.M., & Westbrook, J.D. (2021). Interventions for improving employment outcomes for persons with autism spectrum disorders: A systematic review update. Campbell Systematic Reviews.