Karen Lemke

Professor Lemke teaches Human Growth and Development and Social Studies Methods in Elementary Education at Saint Joseph's College. She also advises elementary education students during the student teaching process. Her master's degree is in reading education and her doctorate is in language arts.

Professor Lemke has a strong interest in history, which is the focus of much of her research and writing, including the trade publications she has written with her husband, history professor Dr. William Lemke. Her mystery book, titled Down East Detective, is a collection of self-contained chapters, each a reconstructed story based on an actual event and told from the standpoint of the detective. For some of the stories, she was able to interview the actual detectives who worked on the cases. The book appeared on a list of Top Ten paperback sellers at the same time as a novel by Stephen King, and she received praise for the book from a Murder, She Wrote producer.

Professor Lemke is currently doing research for a manuscript, titled The Petticoat Tribe, which is about the first time 10 women were elected to Congress at the same time. For this endeavor, Professor Lemke and her co-author husband are using first-hand primary resources from research conducted at the Hyde Park Library of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Professor Lemke enjoys antique collecting, hiking, cooking, reading and animals. She has also been involved in political campaigns and worked with her husband during the eight years he was in the state Legislature.