Karen’s personal passion for environmental health stems from her own health history and the birth of her daughter. As Director, she is excited to build on the work CHE has done in the environmental health community and educate a broader audience about the numerous connections between the environment and our bodies. Karen completed her PhD in 2015 in Strategic Management, a quantitative social science discipline grounded in applied economics and social psychology, at the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington. Her research focused on the health consequences of the different ways in which hospitals manage and structure their relationships with physicians. Previously, she led a monitoring and evaluation team with the UN Millennium Villages Project in ten countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. She brings deep knowledge and experience in statistics, research methods, and data analysis. She particularly enjoys communicating scientific research to non-technical audiences. 


Karen has lived, worked, and traveled extensively in Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe. She is currently based in San Francisco, CA and enjoys cooking, yoga, and hanging out with her family. Karen also holds a MSc in Earth Systems and a BA in Economics from Stanford University.