Memorial Service

Saturday, June 20, 2020

Start time will depend on your time zone.

Please RSVP using the button below. You will receive the Zoom link once you RSVP.

Karen's Memory Page

You can post your stories and photos of Karen (and view those of others) on her Memory Page.

In Memoriam: Karen Lisa Greene

Karen Lisa Greene, beloved daughter, mother and friend, died at the age of 64 on May 23, 2020 in Kampala, Uganda from complications related to cerebral malaria. Karen was born on August 26, 1955 in New York City to Dr. Lee B. and Gladys Bernstein Greene and was raised in Bridgeport, Connecticut. No stranger to sorrow, Karen was preceded in death by her father, Lee, her mother, Gladys, and her nephew, Jonathan Nadim. She is survived by her sister, Susan Nadim, her daughter, Whitney Kirabo Greene, and an extended family of Greene cousins.

Karen was an incisive thinker and a passionate scholar. She earned her BA in English Literature and her MA in Folklore from the University of California, Berkeley. Karen was well known in the Oakland Cambodian community through her work on her Master’s Thesis, Courtship Narratives, Cambodian Refugee Women. Continuing her interest in Cambodia, Karen studied the Khmer language, conducted long-term fieldwork in Cambodia, and received her doctorate in Medical Anthropology from UC Berkeley in 2007. Her doctoral dissertation, The Education of Soksabaay Sok: Translating Child Rights in the Royal Kingdom of Kampuchea, examined how children survive and are cared for by institutions in post-conflict situations.

Karen was also a lifelong educator and deeply committed to child rights. A credentialed teacher, she taught ESL at the Berkeley Adult School and edited a Child Rights newspaper. After earning her doctorate, she taught in a remarkable range of college environments: from UC Berkeley, Stanford and CSU Monterey Bay in California to the American University of Phnom Penh in Cambodia, the University of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Uganda Christian University in Kampala. She is remembered by students both for her seriousness as a teacher and for her playfulness as a person.

Among her worldwide circle of colleagues and friends, Karen is remembered for her warm smile, her keen intellect, her endless curiosity, her hospitality and “American pancakes”, her generosity of spirit, her parental advice-sharing, her salsa dancing, her great courage and determination, and her joy at becoming a mother. Karen’s empathy and gentle presence are perhaps best summed up by her neighbor Sharifa, who said, “We loved her. We all the time invited her to our tea times. She was a great and simple human with all.”

Donations in Karen’s memory may be made to the Karen Lisa Greene Memorial Fund, created to honor her generous spirit, her life’s work, and her great love for Whitney. The funds will be used to settle Karen’s affairs and to support Whitney’s current and future needs.