Karin Lee George
Born in Switzerland, raised in Upstate, NY and a resident of Northampton, Massachusetts for more than 25 years, Karin George is dedicated to non-profit service as a professional and volunteer. After earning a B.A. in art history at Smith College in 1986, Karin began her career at St. Lawrence University with a position in annual giving. She moved on to Vassar College in 1991 and in 1995 was promoted to vice president for development. She returned to her alma mater in 1998 as vice president for advancement during Smith College’s $250 million This is About Smith campaign.
In 2005, Karin joined the international educational consulting firm Washburn & McGoldrick, LLC where she currently serves as a principal consultant. She served the profession as a volunteer trustee for the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and served as chair of the Committee on the Profession from 2003-2005. Karin chaired CASE’s Minority Advancement Institute from 2006-2008.
Her community-based volunteer service includes board membership for Citizens Against Violent Acts (CAVA) in Canton, NY, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Dutchess County, The Peace Development Fund, and the Sugarloaf Mountain Athletic Club. A runner since 1976, she has completed 75 marathons. She currently serves the Community Foundation of Western Mass as chair of the board of trustees. A volunteer for the foundation since 2009, she is most proud of their equity centered approach to funding.
Karin descends from one of the oldest black families in Springfield, Massachusetts and credits her paternal grandmother, Lillian Jackson Lee with inspiring a commitment to community. A charter member of the “We Modern Mothers” giving circle in 1928, Mrs. Lee and her fellow committee members pooled their resources together so their children would not be excluded from activities easily accessed by white children. Karin’s late father, Kermit J. Lee, Jr. inspired her passion for art and art history. The first black Fulbright Fellow from Massachusetts in 1958, he was also Syracuse University School of Architecture’s first black tenured full professor of architecture. His view of the world through his daily drawing and sketching inspires Karin and generations of Professor Lee’s former students to this day.