Karen studied Podiatry at the Chelsea School in 1980 to 1983 obtaining a Diploma in Podiatric Medicine. In 1997 she achieved a MSc in Taught research. Karen has had a long established career working in both Podiatry within the NHS and Private Practice as well as in NHS management with a focus on Clinical Governance. Karen won two study bursaries one to visit Denmark to look at the implementation of Care Pathways at Amagar Hospital in Copenhagen and the second was to the USA to visit several hospital members of the Planetree foundation and the delivery of Patient Focused Care.  

Prior to joining the University as Academic Outreach Manager (part-time), where she developed the STEP-UP Challenge Badge for Girlguiding which promoted Podiatry as a Career to young people Karen spent 9 years working for the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists / College of Podiatry supporting members to advance their workplace learning.  As part of her many responsibilities supporting the membership Karen piloted the introduction of PebblePad as a membership resource to support CPD within the Profession. Subsequent to this Karen was also an elected member of the Council sitting on several committees including the Editorial Board and Professional Practice Committee while she continued to work for a Private Practice in Dorset and having a particular focus on Podiatry associated with Mental Health conditions an in particular in Dementia.  

Karen has now joined the Podiatry Academic team to support the degree apprenticeship programme as the Academic workplace Tutor. With her wealth of experience in workplace learning and supporting members in the professional body Karen's skills complements the Podiatry lecturing team in delivering the Degree apprenticeship.