  The Square Kilometer Array (SKA) will enable studies of star formation in
nearby galaxies with a level of detail never before possible outside of the
Milky Way. Because the earliest stages of stellar evolution are often
inaccessible at optical and near-infrared wavelengths, high spatial resolution
radio observations are necessary to explore extragalactic star formation. The
SKA will have the sensitivity to detect individual ultracompact HII regions out
to the distance of nearly 50 Mpc, allowing us to study their spatial
distributions, morphologies, and population statistics in a wide range of
environments. Radio observations of Wolf-Rayet stars outside of the Milky Way
will also be possible for the first time, greatly expanding the range of
conditions in which their mass loss rates can be determined from free-free
emission. On a vastly larger scale, natal of super star clusters will be
accessible to the SKA out to redshifts of nearly z~0.1. The unprecedented
sensitivity of radio observations with the SKA will also place tight
constraints on the star formation rates as low as 1 M_sun/yr in galaxies out to
a redshift of z~1 by directly measuring the thermal radio flux density without
assumptions about a galaxy's magnetic field strength, cosmic ray production
rate, or extinction.
