Carla Knorowski, Ph.D.

Carla Knorowski, Ph.D. was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, where she currently resides. Her most recent book, Blessing My Mother’s Rosary: Lourdes. Loss. Love. (ACTA Publications, 2024) has been described as, “touching” and “uplifting” by Vanity Fair’s Maureen Orth, “profoundly moving” by clinical psychologist Dr. J. Kim Penberthy, “poignant” by author Chaz Ebert, and “deeply felt” by Emmy and Peabody Award-winning journalist Bill Kurtis. She has authored, edited, and/or contributed to three other books. Under Lincoln’s Hat: 100 Objects That Tell the Story of His Life and Legacy (Lyons Press, 2016) she co-authored with Dr. James Cornelius. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin called the book a “must-read.” She conceived, edited, and contributed to the top-selling Gettysburg Replies: The World Responds to Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (Lyons Press, 2015 & 2018), which featured essays described as “eloquent” by Pulitzer Prize-winning author James M. McPherson and “elegant” by New York Times best-selling author Scott Turow. She also contributed to Lincoln: An Intimate Portrait (Life Books, 2014), published on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s death.

Knorowski has appeared on PBS, C-Span, “CBS This Morning,” and a host of other national and local news outlets. A public speaker, she has been the featured speaker at events or has presented in the media for numerous engagements including the recent reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, and the unveiling of a bust of President Abraham Lincoln, also in Paris. She presented as part of the New York Historical Society’s Bryant Park speaker series (2016), which aired on C-Span in both 2016 and 2023.

A philanthropist, Dr. Knorowski has been frequently recognized for her civic and humanitarian engagement, from being named a “Point of Light” by The Points of Light Foundation founded by U.S. President George H.W. Bush to recently being named an “Officer” in the French Republic’s National Order of Merit. She is a trustee emerita of the Naval War College Foundation and a current board director of the Friends of Notre-Dame de Paris, the official U.S.-based foundation for Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, as well as the Dehkhoda Foundation and the University Club of Chicago. She earned a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Political Science from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a certificate from Harvard University’s Institutes for Higher Education’s Management Development Program.