Karen Gross Education

About the Author Karen Gross is a Washington, DC based author and educator as well as an advisor to nonprofit schools, organizations and governments (www.karengrosseducation.com). Her work focuses on student success with a specialization in trauma, its symptomology and approaches to its amelioration. She has worked with institutions planning for and dealing with in-person-and nature-made disasters including shootings, suicides, immigration detention, family dysfunction, hurricanes and floods. She is the award-winning author of Breakaway Learners: Strategies for Post-Secondary Success (TC Press 2017) and Failure and Forgiveness: Rebalancing the Bankruptcy System (Yale University Press 1996). She is also the author of a trauma-sensitive children’s book series, Lady Lucy’s Quest. She has read to more than 3000 children across the globe. Her newest book is Trauma Doesn't Stop at the School Door: Strategies and Solutions for Educators, PreK–College (Pub date: June 19, 2020 - www.tcpress.com/karen-gross ) Karen currently serves as Senior Counsel to Finn Partners. She is an instructor in continuing education at Rutgers University Graduate School of Social Work and also sits on the Advisory Council at the Center for Minority Serving Institutions at Rutgers. She is a Visiting Professor at Bennington College and artist-in-residence at Molly Stark Elementary School (VT). She served for 8 years as President of Southern Vermont College and as Senior Policy Advisor to the US Department of Education during the Obama Administration. Prior to that, she was a tenured law professor for 22 years in NYC. She has also served on numerous local, regional and national boards, including Campus Compact, New England Board of Higher Education and the Sage Colleges. A frequent voice on education issues across the preK–20 pipeline, she has written for numerous publications, among them University Business, Age of Awareness, The Hechinger Report, The New England Journal of Higher Education, LinkedIn, Forest of the Rain Productions, InsideHigherEd and The Chronicle of Higher Education. Added information is available at: www.karengrosseducation.com

I encourage active and engaged learning with a focus on psychological wellbeing of students. Most of my materials are trauma sensitive or trauma responsive. Most of the items listed are designed to help teachers ameliorate student trauma. I am deeply committed to linking theory to practice so students see and working with real world issues and problems. Authenticity is, too, a value reflected in my teaching.

I have received numerous awards for my books and writing. Most recently, Delta Kappa Gamma DC (Women Educators Honor Society) gave me an award for my contributions to education through my new book, Trauma Doesn’t Stop at the School Door (Teachers College Press June 2020). This same book was listed as one of the top five educational publications for June 2020. My children’s book, Are You a Giraffe, was recently named as a Must Read Top 25 Children’s Book for promoting diversity by Family Fun New Jersey. My earlier adult book, Breakaway Learners (also TC Press) was nominated for the Grawemeyer Award in Education.

I went to an all girls school from 4th grade thru the end of high school. Margaret Mead was the Commencement Speaker for a class of 21 students. I graduated Phi Beta Kappa cum laude from Smith College with a double major in English and Spanish. I won the Emogene Mahoney Prize. I student-taught in 5th grade and then substitute taught 12th grade. I spent my junior year at Dartmouth College in its first year of coeducation. I went to law school at Temple University, graduating cum laude and having spent my last year of law school at the University of Chicago. I am a certified psychological first aid provider and CA ACEs trained.

I currently teach at Rutgers Graduate School of Social Work in continuing education and at College Unbound. I was, pre-Pandemic, the author in residence at the Molly Stark Elementary School in VT (100% free and reduced lunch) . I have read my children’s books to thousands of students across the US, Canada and Tanzania. My newest children’s book in the Lady Lucy series, will be launched in the U.K. Earlier in my career, I was a tenured law professor, a teacher trainer for the Philadelphia School System and a teacher of college Spanish (as an instructor and teaching assistant). I have guest taught across the educational pipeline from PreK through adult education.