Karen received her MSW from the University of Windsor. She has a background in both social work and the arts. She has worked with children, youth and adults in therapeutic and supportive capacities, in settings as varied as schools, wilderness residential, vocational training and arts programming; she also has supportive experience with women escaping intimate partner violence, special needs students, street-entrenched youth, and adults with developmental disabilities. Karen is an avid consumer of arts culture, and enjoys the rich cultural heritage of the first nations, both historical and contemporary. She has lived in rural and urban BC and in southern Ontario. She is a lover of nature, and of plants in particular.