Karen was born in Kentucky and educated in Texas at the University of Houston, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Music and Master of Music in vocal performance. Additional study in operetta was completed at the Mozarteum Summer Academy in Salzburg, Austria. In 2006, she graduated from Teachers College, Columbia University with a Doctor of Education Degree.

The Contemporary Commercial Music (CCM) Vocal Pedagogy Institute sponsored by Shenandoah University has also certified her at Level I,II, and III. The Institute trains teachers in vocal pedagogy pertaining to all non-classical forms of singing. It is led by Jeannette LoVetri, known for her Somatic Voicework™, a body-based system of training for CCM. Ms. LoVetri was an integral part of Karen’s doctoral dissertation work, which explored music theater vocal pedagogy. She advised Karen in the form of an internship.

Karen was chosen to be a NATS Intern in 1995, has served on the NATS Board of Directors—Boston Chapter, and on the Board of the New York Singing Teachers Association (NYSTA). While working toward her doctoral degree, she was invited to join Kappa Delta Pi, an honor society in education. A frequent master class clinician and adjudicator, Karen has been invited to present master classes at the Longy School of Music, Emory and Henry College, East Carolina University and has adjudicated at numerous district and regional NATS events and voice competitions.

A versatile performer, Karen has performed in opera, operetta, concert, oratorio, recital, chamber music, and music theater throughout the United States, most notably on the PBS special Masterclass, with the Seattle Opera, Seattle Symphony, Seattle Civic Light Opera, Hidden Valley Opera, and the Victor Herbert Festival Ensemble in Saratoga Springs, NY. She is a five-time Metropolitan Opera Regional Finalist and has won awards from the Texas Federation of Music Clubs, the Vocal Arts Foundation in San Francisco, and the Eleanor Anderson Lieber Awards, sponsored by Portland Opera. Opera roles include Musetta, Susannah, Curley’s Wife, Adele, Papagena, and Serpina. She toured Turkey and Greece with Philips Academy as the soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

Music theater credits include Maria in West Side Story, Nellie in South Pacific, and Aldonza/Dulcinea in Man of La Mancha. She has performed several leading roles with the Loessin Summer Playhouse: First Woman in I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, Vi in Footloose, Domina in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Madame Dubonnet in The Boyfriend.

She has four recordings to her credit: The Frogs and Sweeney Todd both by Stephen Sondheim, American Songs in Recital, a solo CD of American art songs and music theater selections, and the Pulitzer-prize winning recording On the Transmigration of Souls by John Adams, recorded with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

Karen has been a faculty member at the Crane School of Music/SUNY Potsdam, the Boston Conservatory, the Berklee School of Music, New York University and East Carolina University. She currently teaches music theater and classical voice at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.