Kathleen Mooney (Katie) is a New York City-based early childhood literacy specialist and teacher with a passion for art, service, and boxing. She is also a dog mom to a spirited Terrier named Finleigh. Her love of drawing ignited the first time she picked up a crayon and started drawing at her parents' kitchen table around age two. This passion led her to earn her BFA from Pratt Institute in 2001. Katie traded in her crayons for a chalkboard and followed her heart to the classroom to become an early childhood teacher in 2006. She was inspired to write her first children’s book, About My Brother, after teaching for many years in Brooklyn, NY, and finding it challenging to find books that accurately represented families with children who have special needs. She hopes that this book will reach families of children with and without special needs and serve as a tool to promote social inclusion and foster empathy. When she’s not writing, drawing, or coaching, you'll find Katie side-stepping and counter-punching around various NYC parks and boxing gyms or in her Brooklyn neighborhood, supervising Finleigh’s squirrel chases.
