Katie Moore’s career in international education has taken her to places most of us can’t find on a map: Mozambique, Fiji, Laos, the Philippines, Vietnam, Timor-Leste, The Gambia, Zambia, Uganda, Azerbaijan, Sierra Leone.

But no matter where the 2008 graduate has gone, “Butler friends and former professors have really been a part of every step on my path,” she said. “And not just kept in touch, but have supported me in my life and in all of these decisions that my family has made. I don’t know that you get that at other universities.”

Moore had planned to devote two years to the Peace Corps after graduation, then become an early- or middle-childhood teacher. She thinks back to her days at Butler and recalls that when her then-boyfriend, now-husband Nick ’07 MPACC ’08 was earning his Master’s in Accounting, one of his courses included lessons in negotiating. One of the topics he chose to present to his class was about negotiating what their life would look like after she finished with the Peace Corps.

“Unfortunately, he ‘lost’ his negotiation from that particular class; neither of us ever imagined we would have the life that we’ve had!” she says, laughing.

More seriously, she says, “On the other hand, we have gained together a world view that is more inclusive, more critical, and one that allows us to better understand the privilege we have had in even beginning to have the careers and opportunities to work and live internationally by choice. A recent UNICEF video articulates this sentiment, as it highlights the significant number of children and families throughout the world that travel not by choice, but for sheer survival.”

Two years in the Peace Corps—where she trained approximately 90 young adults between the ages of 18-30 to become primary school teachers—became three, and in that third year, which she spent working for Save the Children, she was exposed to the field of non-governmental humanitarian work. She has since worked in various positions ranging from internships, fellowships, and as a consultant for global reaching organizations such as Amnesty International, UNICEF, Catholic Relief Services, and other organizations, promoting education, early childhood development and health.

While most of Katie’s work has taken her to far-off corners of the globe, she also has spent time in New York—she earned her Master’s in International Educational Development from Columbia University in 2013—and in Washington, DC. That’s where she, Nick, and their daughter Wini are now based.

These days, Katie works as Senior Technical Advisor for Early Childhood Development for ChildFund International. The organization provides parenting programming to empower parents and other primary caregivers in low-resourced communities in the countries in which ChildFund operates with the knowledge and practical skills they need to give children a strong start in life, building on what parents already know and do. (Nick is Vice President Finance at Brookfield Property Partners, a real estate developer.)

This year, Katie is also wrapping up multi-year research efforts with Yale University’s Child Study Center; she was on a team of research consultants. The team has been conducting a multi-country study on the impact of decentralization on early childhood education in East and Central Asia. 

In her most recent position, Katie will continue to engage with academic partners aiming to identify how to improve early childhood development programming conducted jointly with governments and community-based organizations in lower- and middle-income countries to promote children’s development in their early years. She says she’d like to get back into academia in the future, perhaps earn her doctorate in Global Public Health.

“The experiential learning opportunities I had as a student in Butler’s College of Education, specifically, and at Butler, more generally, made a significant impression on me,” she said during the State of the University. “Not only on what I would choose to work on, but how and with whom, and they influenced the person, parent and professional I would become in an ever-changing world.”