Dr. Susan Klinker is a Visiting Clinical Assistant Professor in Special Education. Her experience in education is broad, having begun her career as a music teacher in the public schools of central Indiana. Later, she was a special education teacher in the juvenile schools of the Indiana Department of Correction (IDOC), where she was promoted to Director of Juvenile Education, providing oversight to the education programming in all the IDOC juvenile schools in the state.

Dr. Klinker is a past President of the Correctional Education Association (CEA). In this role, she provided leadership to correctional educators across the country as they addressed various issues impacting correctional education programs in their states. She has worked as a court-appointed expert consultant on several cases involving the provision of special education. In 2016 she was honored with the National Workforce Development Leadership Award from Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG).

Dr. Klinker has made numerous presentations at state, national and international conferences. Her areas of research are specific to the impact of education on recidivism. She has published numerous peer reviewed research articles, and in 2018 she published a book, “Kicked to the Curb: Where Policy has Failed our Most Vulnerable Youth and the Fight for a Better Tomorrow.”