Maria Kefalas is a founder of the Calliope Joy Foundation, established to raise funds to help children with leukodystrophy. Its work led to the opening of the nation’s first Leukodystrophy Center of Excellence at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
She is the author of the memoir, Harnessing Grief:A Mother’s Quest for Meaning and Miracles. Praised as “a stunning, candid memoir” by Library Journal, it is published by Beacon Press.
With Patrick Carr, she is the author of Hollowing Out the Middle. Also published by Beacon Press, the Nation called the book “A powerful work of sociology and reportage.” And Maria is the co-author, with Kathryn Edin, of Promises I Can Keep, winner of the William J. Goode Best Book Award from the American Sociological Association.
Maria is Associate Professor of Sociology at St. Joseph’s University and a Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Violence Research and Prevention.