Gallatin Alumna Honored with NYUAA Award
Siff-Exkorn with her husband Franklin and son Jake
At its annual awards dinner on November 8, 2007, the New York University Alumni Association proudly recognized seven extraordinary alumni—one of whom was Gallatin alumna Karen Siff-Exkorn (MA ’96). Siff-Exkorn received the Alumni Meritorious Service Award, an honor bestowed on alumni who have demonstrated a profound commitment to NYU through the years.
Since graduating from the Gallatin School, Siff-Exkorn has exhibited a lasting devotion to her alma mater and has deeply embodied the University motto, “Persevere and excel.” In the same year she earned her master’s degree, she established the Siff Masters Performance Thesis Fund to assist performing arts students with the development of their theses. In 2005, she further demonstrated her commitment to the School by establishing the annual Siff Scholarship for Master’s Level Students. Her continued support of both of these initiatives provides students with much-needed resources as they strive to achieve their academic and creative goals.
Philanthropy has been just one of the ways in which Siff-Exkorn demonstrates her dedication. As a member of the Gallatin Dean’s Council, on which she has served for more than ten years, she acts as an ambassador for the School. She has served as a panelist at Gallatin’s first alumni college presentation, “The Artist as a Chameleon,” and for the Gallatin Arts Festival, at which she shared how her experiences at Gallatin affected her creative and professional life. Her active role as an alumna and mentor has also expanded into the NYU community; she has been a featured speaker on women and entrepreneurship at the Stern School of Business.
Siff-Exkorn’s commitment to Gallatin has remained unflagging even in the face of tremendous personal challenges. In 1998, her son Jake was diagnosed with autism at the age of two. Frustrated by a lack of straightforward information about treatment options, Siff-Exkorn gave up her consulting business to spend more time helping her son and pursuing treatment for him. Fortunately, her efforts were incredibly successful. After intensive early intervention and treatment Jake flourished, and today he no longer meets any of the criteria for autism. Yet, Siff-Exkorn has made it her mission to reach out to other families living with the disorder, and to that end wrote The Autism Sourcebook: Everything You Need to Know About Diagnosis, Treatment, Coping and Healing—From a Mother Whose Child Recovered (ReganBooks/HarperCollins, 2005).
Siff-Exkorn serves as a frequent lecturer at universities and autism organizations internationally, and as a consultant to families of autistic children. She has appeared on Nightline, Good Morning America, The View, and in The New York Times, Town & Country and other media. In 2006 she helped educate the NYU community on the subject of autism in a lecture cosponsored by Gallatin’s Dean’s Mentoring Roundtable Series and the Gallatin Writing Program.
Gallatin Dean Susanne Wofford states, “It was a pleasure to honor Karen with this lovely award, as she has been an active alumna and advocate of the School for many years. Her service to Gallatin and NYU is exemplary, but it is especially worthy of recognition given the fact that she has had other pressing commitments and challenges to contend with in recent years. I feel tremendously lucky to have her support."