Karen Gross

I am an educator, author and artist. Currently, I speak, write, advise and consult on student success, improving educational leadership, trauma and handling educational crises. To that end, I serve as Senior Counsel to Finn Partners. I was a visiting faculty member at Bennington College in VT in Spring 2016. I currently am on the Advisory Council for MSIs at Rutgers GSE (and serve in their mentoring program for new MSI leaders) and serve as a continuing education instructor at Rutgers SSW. I have taught and continue to teach at every age level along the pre-K -- 20 educational pipeline. In Feb. 2018, I served as a visiting scholar/professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, CA. My artwork has been shown online and in brick and mortar galleries and hangs in educational institutions where I have spoken. My children's book series, Lady Lucy's Quest, was launched by ShiresPress on March 29, 2016. All books are trauma-sensitive. A version of the original story was translated into Spanish (renamed La Saga de la Señorita Sofia) and released in April 2018. An Activity Book tied to both books is presently available. A prequel, Are You a Giraffe?, was published in 2018. A sequel, in the form of a chapter book, Lady Lucy's Dragon Quest, is available (with the same amazing illustrators and a new cover) too. Dillon the Dragon is worth meeting as is Tapestry! Then, there's Lady Lucy's Laugh Giraffe Journey. The newest book in the series: Lady Lucy's Ghost Quest, released for Halloween 2019 and Lady Lucy's Dinosaur Quest released in April 2020. I also have written non-Lady Lucy children's books, include The Feeling Alphabet Activity Set with Edward KS Wang. I released, with D. Wraga, a book of signs and essays related to the Post-Inaugural Women's March (Jan. 21, 2017). It is a book to inspire --- and read and visit again and again. That book remains relevant to this day. And, there will be a sequel on women's rights in 2020. In 2017, my adult book, Breakaway Learners, was released by Columbia Teachers College Press. This book provides a pathway for improving the educational success of low income, first generation, minority students. It offers concrete strategies for how these students can be better served by the institutions that enroll them and explains why some students succeed. Breakaway Learners is available at Amazon and through Columbia Teachers College Press. A sequel/sidequel, Trauma Doesn't Stop at the School Door, also from TCPress, was released in 2020; it provides concrete guidance for educators across the early childhood -- adulthood pipeline for how to facilitate students success at the institutional level. It addresses strategies for identifying and addressing trauma symptomology within institutions. My newest adult book, also from TCPress and co-authored with Edward KS Wang, completes the trilogy. Titled Mending Education: Finding Hope, Creativity and Mental Wellness in Times of Trauma (2024). This book addresses how to improve education for all of our students through what we learned during the Pandemic; we term these new learnings "Pandemic Positives," and while counterintuitive, a crisis did create opportunity. This book also includes our art, to enhance the book's positive messages. My professional speaking audiences include MSAA, MASCA, NCGS, EACUBO, NEASC, CASE and Yes We Must Coalition, and I write/blog for a variety of publications including InsideHigherEd, The Chronicle of Higher Ed, Aspen Journal of Ideas, Hechinger Report, CollegeAD, MEDIUM, Evollution, Diverse, Age of Awareness and Forest of the Rain Productions. I have also visited a host of schools, libraries and after-school organization where I have read and talked about my children's books; so far, over 3000 children have heard my stories. I read them in three languages: English, Spanish and French. From 2006 -- 2014, I was President of Southern Vermont College, a small, private, affordable, four-year college founded in 1926 and located in Bennington, VT. The College offers a career-launching education with a liberal arts core. The College enrolls many first generation, low-income Pell eligible students and is committed to student access and success. With a strong interest in athletics, I chaired the NECC and was on the NCAA DIII President’s Advisory Group and continue to advocate for and write about improving collegiate athletics. By way of added background, from 2011 – 2013, I served (both part and full time) as Senior Policy Advisor to the US Department of Education in Washington, DC. I was the Department's representative on the interagency task force charged with redesigning the transition assistance program for returning service members and their families, working closely with an array of government agencies. Prior to becoming a college president, I was a tenured law professor for two plus decades. My academic areas of expertise included consumer finance, over-indebtedness and community economic development.