Karen donned her athletic identity later in life than most. At 21, she took her first rowing strokes in a college club program in California, and her life’s trajectory shifted from chasing a graduate degree in architecture to a lifestyle committed to the pursuit of rowing at the elusive elite level. Ten years and two Olympic medals later, she found herself in graduate school for exercise physiology at UW Madison. With the injuries that followed a decade of intense training in an asymmetrical sport, she sought out yoga and loved it for its healing properties, both physical and emotional. She enjoyed it so much that she completed her 500hr teacher training and began teaching yoga while in grad school Three years into her degree, she was recruited by the UW Athletic Department to coach Women’s Rowing.Connecting with the student athletes as they met, and sometimes exceeded, both individual and team goals was indubitably the best part of her job, but she found herself out of balance with her work and family life. She left the Athletic Department and found FIT. Karen enjoyed the privilege of coaching during FIT’s toddler years, but by then she had her own toddler to manage, so she left FIT to work on an advanced degree in motherhood. Turns out there’s no such thing, so she’s back at FIT, working out and helping out when needed as a sub. Already, she feels back “at home” with the community of FIT athletes and the team vibe of the coaching staff.

Karen’s husband, Calvin, and her daughter, Revel, are her two favorite humans. Her dog, Dooley, is her most beloved beast. She still teaches yoga at a few places, enjoys crafts, and is honing her craft of roasting coffee beans in the garage.