Dr. Karen McNamara, Board Member, Executive Director

Karen teaches graduate courses on Children’s Literature at Drew University. Karen, her husband Sean, and their three children, Shannon, Megan, and Brendan, have volunteered together as a family for several summers in developing countries, such as Peru, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. Karen has volunteered in Tanzania with her family for the past three summers.

Karen's research and work in literature for children has been published in books and journals. She has written chapters in Critical Approaches to Food in Children’s Literature (2008), and Hungry Words (2006), with her chapter “’It was a life-changing book’: tracing Cecil Woodham-Smith’s impact on the canon of children’s literature of the Irish Famine” positively reviewed in The Irish Times.

Other publications include “From Fairies to Famine: How cultural identity is constructed through Irish and Irish American children’s literature” (Children’s Folklore Review), and “Children’s Literature of the Great Irish Famine”, (Foilsiu).

McNamara graduated with distinction from Drew University in 2003 and her doctoral dissertation, “Telling Bridget’s Tale of Hunger: Children’s Literature of the Great Irish Famine,” won the University Prize. She has presented 17 papers on children’s and young adult literature at national and international conferences.