Kathy Engel is the author, most recently, of Ruth's Skirts (IKON) and co-editor, with Kamal Boullata, of We Begin Here: Poems for Palestine and Lebanon (Interlinkbooks) She is an adjunct professor at New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study.

She founded MADRE with a group of women in 1983, co-founded Riptide Communications, East End Women in Black, Hayground School and Kickass Artists. She works as a communications, creative and strategic consultant for social change, peace and human rights organizations.