Karen Brooks Hop­kins is the pres­i­dent emeri­ta of The Brook­lyn Acad­e­my of Music, where she worked for 36 years, serv­ing six­teen as its pres­i­dent. As pres­i­dent, Hop­kins over­saw the insti­tu­tion’s 230 full-time employ­ees and its mul­ti­ple the­aters and cin­e­mas, rang­ing from the 2,100-seat BAM Opera House to the flex­i­ble 250 seat Fish­man Space. Hop­kins served as the chair of the Cul­tur­al Insti­tu­tions Group, has been a mem­ber of the May­or’s cul­tur­al affairs Advi­so­ry Com­mis­sion, the New York State Board of Regents, and on the Boards of NYC & Com­pa­ny, the Down­town Brook­lyn Part­ner­ship, and cur­rent­ly serves on the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. She was des­ig­nat­ed a ​“Woman of Achieve­ment” by the pro­fes­sion­al asso­ci­a­tion Women in Devel­op­ment in 2013 and named one of the ​“50 Most Pow­er­ful Women in NY” by Crain’s Busi­ness. Among the many hon­ors BAM has received dur­ing her tenure is the 2013 Nation­al Medal of Arts, the high­est award giv­en to artists and arts orga­ni­za­tions by the U.S. gov­ern­ment. Pres­i­dent Oba­ma pre­sent­ed the medal to Hop­kins at the White House cer­e­mo­ny. And in 2014,Hopkins was one of ten esteemed busi­ness lead­ers appoint­ed to the inau­gur­al Crain’s Hall of Fame. A grad­u­ate of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mary­land, she received her MFA from George Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­si­ty in Wash­ing­ton, DC. She has received hon­orary degrees from St. Frances Col­lege, Pratt Insti­tute, Long Island Uni­ver­si­ty, and a pres­ti­gious Doc­tor of Laws from Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty. From 2005 – 2010 Hop­kins served as Brook­lyn regent for the New York State Edu­ca­tion Depart­ment Board of Regents. Fol­low­ing her retire­ment from BAM in June 2013. Hop­kins recent­ly served as the Inau­gur­al Senior Fel­low in Res­i­dence at the Andrew W. Mel­lon Foun­da­tion, advi­sor to the New Jer­sey Per­form­ing arts Cen­ter, board mem­ber of the Jerome L. Greene Foun­da­tion, senior advi­sor to and board mem­ber of the Alexan­der S. Onas­sis Ben­e­fit Foun­da­tion (USA) and a Nash­er Haemiseg­ger Fel­low at SMU/​Data Arts. Hop­kins lives in Park Slope, Brook­lyn. She has one son and three beloved grand­daugh­ters and daugh­ter-in-law – all hap­pi­ly liv­ing in Brooklyn.