Derek W. M. Barker is senior program officer for Research Initiatives at the Kettering Foundation, where he helps shape and implement the foundation’s nonpartisan research agenda. His work focuses on identifying, supporting, and evaluating research that advances inclusive democracy, while also building strategic partnerships and helping communicate key insights to diverse audiences. 

Barker also serves as editor of From Many, We, a blog series that draws on his background in political theory to explore the aspirational goals—and persistent challenges—of building inclusive democratic societies. His scholarship includes the book Tragedy and Citizenship: Conflict, Reconciliation, and Democracy from Haemon to Hegel, which argues that democratic citizenship requires not only deliberation and consensus but also a reckoning with conflict, loss, and the limits of justice. He has also published widely on democratic theory and engaged scholarship. 

Before joining the foundation, Barker taught political studies at Pitzer College. He holds a PhD in political science from Rutgers University.