Karen is the program specialist for Iowa State University’s Preparing Future Faculty (PFF). She is also the administrative co-leader for Iowa State’s involvement in the Center for the Integration of Research Teaching and Learning (CIRTL) multi-university network.
She works primarily with Iowa State University’s graduate student population, helping future professors hone pedagogy and prepare for successful teaching careers. Her research interests include flipped classrooms, teaching creativity, team learning, the scholarship of learning and teaching, and writing across the curriculum.
Karen earned a B.S. in anthropology, English, and history in 1997 and a double-specialization M.A. in creative writing and literature in 2001 from Iowa State University. She has worked in administration at Iowa State since her graduation, first in the graduate college, then in the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching. She earned an M.F.A. in creative writing with a specialization in popular fiction in the University of Southern Maine’s low residency Stonecoast program in July 2013.