Carl Kramer

Carl Kramer

Carl Kramer

Mary Kramer

Mary Kramer

Mary Kramer

Dr. Carl E. Kramer, founder and vice president of Kramer Associates, Inc., has studied the Louisville metropolitan region for four decades. He holds a B.A. degree in history and political science from Anderson University (1968), an M.A. in urban education from Roosevelt University (1970), an M.S. in community development from the University of Louisville (1972); and a Ph.D. in American history, with a concentration in urban history, from the University of Toledo (1980).  He has done graduate studies in Biblical studies and church history at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

 

Dr. Kramer has extensive teaching and government experience in history, planning, and historic preservation. From 1968 to 1970 he was an elementary school intern with the Chicago Urban Teacher Corps. He was a research planner for the Louisville-Jefferson County Planning Commission from March 1971 to July 1972 and executive director of the Clark County Planning, Zoning, and Building Commission from 1991 to 1997.  He twice chaired the Kentuckiana Regional Planning and Development Agency’s Transportation Technical Coordinating Committee and served on the Ohio River Major Investment Study committee, which recommended the Ohio River Bridges Project, including two new bridges between Louisville, Kentucky, and Jeffersonville, Indiana, and reconstruction  of “Spaghetti Junction,” the interchange of Interstates 64, 64, and  71.

 

As an architectural historian for the Louisville Historic Landmarks and Preservation Districts Commission from 1976-1978, Kramer helped prepare a two-volume historical and architectural development study of central, southern, and eastern Louisville. He taught for 34 years at Indiana University Southeast, where he was director of the Institute for Local and Oral History, and the Lewis and Clark Summer Institute and adjunct assistant professor of history.  From 2008 to 2010 he was special assistant to the vice chancellor for academic affairs, with editorial responsibility for the university’s successful North Central Association reaccreditation self-study.  He also has taught at University of Louisville. Dr. Kramer has taught American urban and planning history, labor history, historic preservation, Civil War and Reconstruction, oral history, Louisville history, Indiana history, urban politics, and industrial sociology. 

 

Dr. Kramer is the author of 10 books and more than 100 other publications, including articles and book reviews in professional, business, and trade publications; booklets and pamphlets; preservation and planning studies, annual reports, and maps.  He has conducted numerous multi-interview oral history projects, and for 10 years he was oral historian for former Jefferson County Judge-Executive and Louisville Mayor David L. Armstrong. 

 

Among other organizations, Dr. Kramer serves on the board of directors of the Urban History Association, is active in the Society for American City and Regional Planning History, and is a past president of the Louisville Agricultural Club.  He serves on the board of directors of the Indiana Lewis and Clark Foundation and the advisory board of the Falls of the Ohio Foundation, and he has served as an officer and board member for approximately two dozen other non-profit community groups.  He is a past chair of the Clark County Chapter of the American Red Cross and the Southern Indiana Transit Advisory Group, past president of the Rotary Club of Jeffersonville, and past assistant governor of Rotary District 6580.

Mary Kagin Kramer, president and treasurer of Kramer Associates, Inc., has over 30 years of experience as a human services professional in the Louisville metropolitan region. She received a B. A. degree in humanities from Macalaster College in 1969 and an M.S. in community development from the University of Louisville in 1985. After graduating from Macalaster she studied German at the University of Vienna, and has lived, worked, and traveled for extended periods in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Great Britain, Israel, and Brazil. She also has done graduate work at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

In addition to her administrative and financial management responsibilities, Ms. Kramer coordinates KAI’s services related to volunteer and human services administration, public relations, and special events management. She edits all documents and projects, serves as videographer and technologist for oral history projects, and is photographic editor for projects involving archival and original photography. She has conducted in-depth histories of her own family, both in the United States and Europe, and has lectured on family history at Bellarmine University and for genealogical and civic groups.

 

During a 24-year career with Louisville Regional Blood Services and Louisville Area Chapter, American Red Cross, Ms. Kramer gained experience in marketing, sales, staff training, volunteer administration, and event planning. As director of volunteer personnel for over four years, she coordinated recruitment, training, and retention of one of the largest human services volunteer bases in Kentucky. She twice recruited and organized some 650 volunteers for the former Clark County Air Show, one of the largest non-disaster volunteer activities ever conducted by an American Red Cross chapter. She received the Louisville Area Chapter’s Marjorie Jordan Award for Employee Excellence in 1994. Ms. Kramer is a member and past president of the Kentuckiana Association for Volunteer Administration and the Human Services Association of Southern Indiana and has made numerous presentations at professional meetings and workshops.

 

A vigorous community leadership volunteer, Ms. Kramer is a graduate of Leadership Southern Indiana, past president of the Rotary Club of Jeffersonville, and a three-time assistant governor of Rotary District 6580. She is a long-time board member and has chaired the Clark County Chapter of the American Red Cross. She received the Jane A. Kramer Pitman Volunteer of the Year Award in 2003. She also has served on the board of directors and as chair of the Center for Cultural Resources at Indiana University Southeast.