DIRECTORY LISTING

Office Hours

Fall 2024

Mondays 3-5 PM (Campus/Zoom) 

(Appointments by email)

*Additional Zoom Appointments may be available via email as well! 

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire!"

W. B. Yeats

Biography

Dr. Karen Lynn Ellefsen is a doctoral lecturer of Early Childhood and Childhood Education at Lehman College. Originally from Brooklyn, New York, Dr. Ellefsen moved to North Dakota as a young teen and found her heart in teaching and in early childhood education. She attributes her continued love of teaching today to the positive experience she had as a new teacher and after all this time in education she is still in bewildered awe of the development of children. She earned her doctorate in Early Childhood Education at Walden University with a dissertation focused on the archetypal portrayal of female characters in preschool children’s books.

At Lehman, Dr. Ellefsen focuses on securing students’ self-efficacy and how powerful believing in yourself can be on this exciting journey. She considers her teaching style to be based in storytelling, her own as well as her students (whom she calls scholars), and reminds these scholars (and herself!) that words do matter and are quite powerful.

Dr. Ellefsen respects children and students of all ages and has an equally profound respect for teachers who are making a difference in the lives of the students they teach. Her teaching philosophy is simple and straightforward: if you love and respect all students, create a nurturing environment so everyone feels safe and able to make mistakes along the way, realize that the best teaching tool you have is your role modeling, and remember that every interaction you have each day can make a difference, you are on your way.