Patti Kelly Ralabate

Patti Kelly Ralabate, Ed.D., is a nationally recognized expert in Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and an education consultant specializing in effective instructional design for all learners. She is the author of Your UDL Lesson Planner: The Step-by-Step Guide for Teaching All Learners and co-author of Your UDL Journey: A Systems Approach to Transforming Instruction and Culturally Responsive Design for English Learners: The UDL Approach (with Loui Lord Nelson), as well as co-author of Unpacking Universal Design for Learning. A longtime speech-language pathologist, she has nearly three decades of teaching experience, and previously served as Director of Implementation at CAST, where she led multi-district UDL implementation work, and as special education expert in the National Education Association’s Education Policy and Practice Department, contributing to bringing UDL into federal policy.

Ralabate holds a doctorate in special education from The George Washington University, a master’s degree in speech-language pathology from the University of Massachusetts, and a bachelor’s degree in education from SUNY Fredonia. She has been a UDL leadership fellow at Boston College, directed the National Center on Universal Design for Learning, and has taught as part-time faculty at The George Washington University, in addition to leading PKR Professional Learning, where she provides professional learning and consultation on UDL