In the acknowledgements of Going Public, Shelley Harwayne writes:
"Karen Ruzzo is a gift from New England. I'd like to thank her for her exquisite teaching, her even tempered and gracious presence, her calm and soothing way with children and adults, and her willingness to always let me work with her children. When Karen sings to her students, they stop what they are doing and look up in awe. She teaches with voice in more ways than one."

Karen has a Masters degree in Reading and a Certification in Public Administration. After leaving the classroom, Karen worked across the grades as a staff developer and as the Coordinator of Elementary Literacy Professional Development in NYC's District Two. Karen conducts literacy workshops around the country and consistently receives rave reviews for her practical and inspiring workshops.

In addition, she wrote the Best Bets column for Instructor Magazine and published a feature article titled: Saving James: Lessons Learned From Reading Recovery in the May/June 1999 issue. Karen is co-authoring a book which will be published by Heinemann, about implementing courses of study with second graders. This year, she returned to the Manhattan New School as the assistant principal.