Founder

Karen Domingo-Moran’s formal study of architecture began when she entered Cooper Union’s undergraduate program at the age of 16. After receiving her Bachelor of Architecture degree, Karen focused her career on large scale public projects within New York City. She also strengthened her knowledge base and skill set through graduate level studies at Parson’s School of Design in Technology and Design, and UC Berkley in Engineering. Her career highlights have included working on the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s AirTrain; JFK’s Terminal One Design Competition; NYC’s public school modernizations, and subway station renovations.

Like most parents, starting a family completely changed Karen’s life. The seeds of Kidspire started to develop when Karen volunteered to teach architecture and design at her eldest child’s school. The benefit of the work Karen did for the school was obvious to teachers and parents, and the children showed an incredible enthusiasm for the curriculum. Inspired, she applied and won two consecutive grants from the Queens Council on the Arts to continue her work as a Teaching Artist. In the next two years, she developed and led “My City” a curriculum integrated project where each student constructed a scale model of an NYC skyscraper.

The initial three years of teaching gave Karen immense insight into the value of introducing 2D and 3D problem solving to children. It also allowed her to develop unique, effective, and exciting curriculum for her students.  In 2015, Karen won the Queens StartUp Business Plan Competition sponsored by the Citi Foundation and Queens Library. She officially founded Kidspire LLC and has been busy ever since.