Kat Alves
Associate Professor of Special Education and Program Director of Special Education

Dr. Kat Alves is an Associate Professor of Special Education at Longwood University. She previously worked for seven years as a special education teacher at the elementary school level with a focus on high incidence disabilities. In her role, she served in numerous positions, including as lead special education teacher and child study co-chair. She graduated with a Ph.D. in Special Education from the University of Virginia in 2016. Dr. Alves teaches courses on general special education topics (e.g., exceptional learners, collaboration, IEPs), as well as courses on reading development and language arts instruction. Her research interests involve improving literacy outcomes for students with high incidence disabilities, as well as improving how we train teachers to teach reading. Her research focuses on the best ways to prepare preservice teachers to teach reading to struggling readers, specifically in the areas of vocabulary and reading comprehension.