MK

Martha L. Karsh

Director at KIPP Schools

Martha L. Karsh, an attorney, has practiced law, formed an architecture/design firm and done extensive non-profit work.

In 1998, Martha co-founded the Karsh Family Foundation, with a focus on supporting education. To date, the Karshes have made gifts and pledges of nearly $300 million to support scholarship and education at all levels. Their largest gifts have been for need-based financial aid at the University of Pennsylvania, Duke, Brown, Spelman, Howard, and Virginia Law School, as well as for KIPP and Teach for America in K-12. They are also major supporters of Charter School Growth Fund and UNCF.

Martha currently serves on the national board of KIPP Foundation, co-chairs the bicentennial “Honor the Future Campaign for the University of Virginia,” and is a Trustee Emerita of the University of Virginia Law School Foundation. She chairs the KIPP SoCal Public Schools Trustees and successfully led the $70 million growth campaign for KIPP in Los Angeles.

Martha is a graduate of the University of Virginia (1978) and Virginia Law School (1981). In 2016, she published her first book, The Beatles A Hard Day’s Night: A Private Archive. Martha and her husband, Bruce, live in Los Angeles and together have raised three children