Dr. Kara Dillard comes to the Madison Center for Civic Engagement with 15 years of experience researching, teaching and professional practice in the deliberative democracy and public engagement fields. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the School of Communication Studies, is a Co-Director at the Institute for Constructive Advocacy and Dialogue and holds a Research Associate appointment in digital deliberation with the Charles F. Kettering Foundation.

Dr. Dillard's current research focuses on innovations in civic-oriented design-built technology, specifically examining the behavioral and attitudinal effects of facilitated public deliberative dialogue in online spaces. Her research has been featured in Journal of Applied Communication Research, Journal of Political Science Education, and the International Journal of Communication. She serves as a curriculum program coach and in assessment design for the Interactivity Foundation’s Collaborative Discussion certificate program. Most recently, she built large-scale data visualizations as part of the City of Harrisonburg’s recent $23 million pandemic relief fund public input process, making data about civic engagement transparent and actionable. As a AASCU American Democracy Project Civic Fellow for the 2022-2023 year, she’ll focus on mapping the civic-deliberative technology landscape and integrating the most useful and dynamic software into expanding the National Week of Deliberation initiative, which will be housed at the Madison Center.

She holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in communication studies and earned a PhD in political and rural sociology from Kansas State University.