Sharon M. Karmazin

A two-time Tony Award-winning Broadway producer with additional accolades for achievements in public library leadership, Sharon Matlofsky Karmazin is founder of the Karma Foundation, a philanthropic family foundation that invests in efforts relating to arts and culture, education, literacy, health and human services, Jewish life, and autism.

During her distinguished career, including more than 30 years as a leader at the East Brunswick Public Library, Karmazin received awards including the New Jersey Library Association Library Service Award, and three John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Awards. For the past 14 years, she has produced plays on and off Broadway and in London, earning nine Tony Award nominations between 2002 and 2014, when she won in the category of Best Revival of a Musical for Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Her previous award had been in 2012 in the category of Best Play for Clybourne Park.

An active alumna, Karmazin has supported major programs and projects at Douglass College, the Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life, and Mason Gross School of the Arts. She has served as a member of the Associate Alumnae of Douglass College Board of Directors and chair of the Douglass Society Selection Committee. Additional activities include being a member of the Rutgers University Foundation Board of Overseers and the Rutgers President’s Council Executive Committee. In 2013, Karmazin received the Douglass Medal for her contributions to the college, which included being a lead donor for three major capital campaigns. Additional past honors include the Rutgers Meritorious Service Award and the Alumnae Recognition Award. This past spring, Douglass and the New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs presented her with a 2014 New Jersey Women of Achievement Award.

In addition to her volunteer work at Rutgers, Karmazin serves on the boards of many organizations, including the George Street Playhouse, which awarded her its Thomas H. Kean Arts Advocacy Award, the Actor’s Fund, Yiddish Book Center, Association for Israel’s Decorative Artists, the Creative Glass Center of America at Wheaton Arts, and the Moment Magazine Advisory Board in Washington, D.C. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in English from Douglass College and a master of library science degree from Rutgers’ School of Communication, Information, and Library Studies.