Emma Kain

Emma Kain is the Community Engagement Director at United Way of Wapello County in Ottumwa, Iowa. In her last year of her Master of Social Work program at the University of Iowa, she will graduate in May of 2021. She is an AmeriCorps VISTA alum. Her background is based in volunteer administration and community organizing and focusing on working with allies to tackle equity issues in her community. Her work is grounded in Asset Based Community Development and she approaches everything through a diversity, equity, and inclusion lens; she believes that doing the most good with the least harm is imperative in working towards community change.To her, this means that all work must use anti-racist, anti-homophobic, and anti-bias practices because we know that individuals, namely white people, and white supremacist systems have upheld laws, policies, and beliefs that negatively impact our children and families of color who often experience the largest proficiency gaps. Emma believes that an authentic Grade-Level Reading campaign must work to dismantle these structures to meet the needs of our communities as a whole.