Karen Gross

Educator, author, artist, and advisor

Karen Gross is a Gloucester, MA– and Washington, DC–based educator, author, and artist, as well as an advisor to nonprofit schools, organizations, and governments. Her work focuses on student success across the educational landscape and the impact of trauma on learning and psychosocial development. She has dealt with institutions planning for and dealing with person- and nature-made disasters including the COVID pandemic, shootings, suicides, hurricanes, and floods. She has also worked with leaders to stabilize their institutions in the midst and aftermath of crises (e.g., student dysregulation, harassment, and discrimination). 

She currently is a continuing education instructor at the Rutgers School of Social Work and sits on the advisory council at the Center for Minority Serving Institutions at Rutgers Graduate School of Education. She has been a visiting professor at colleges and universities across the United States and Canada. She is the cofounder of the Virtual Teachers Lounge, which serves educators across the globe and conducts workshops and seminars for organizations dealing with student and educator struggles, including the impact of trauma on students, educators, families, and communities.

Previously, she served for 8 years as the president of Southern Vermont College and as senior policy advisor to the U.S. Department of Education during the Obama Administration. Prior to that, she was a tenured law professor for over 2 decades in New York City. She has served on a number of local and national boards of nonprofit institutions. She also served on the domestic policy committee of President Biden’s campaign (focusing on education).

In addition to writing award-winning adult books (including Breakaway Learners and Trauma Doesn’t Stop at the School Door, which form two of the three books creating the trilogy of which the current book is a part), she is the author of a children’s book series titled Lady Lucy’s Quest, several publications of which have been translated into Spanish. Her artwork, which is trauma-responsive, has been shown in online and brick and mortar galleries, appears in online magazines and catalogues, and hangs in various educational institutions across the United States. Since she is a frequently blogger and commentator on issues of education, her work has appeared in TheEvollution, Collegiate Exchange, Newsweek, The New England Journal of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Age of Awareness (Medium), Forest of the Rain Productions,and Authentic Insider,among other publications. During the pandemic, she conducted more than 50 podcasts on trauma’s impact on education. She has been cited in numerous articles including in Forbes, Parents, The Atlantic, ASCA, Romper, and The New York Times.

For more information, visit her website at www.karengrosseducation.com