Karen Lauritsen

I design experiences for the community at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. Officially, I'm the Communications and Public Programs Coordinator for the Robert E. Kennedy Library. You can see our work on Boing Boing.

We share our stories, podcasts and media on Out Loud, which I launched as editor. Recently, the engineering librarian and I started Maths and Arts to share ideas about library assesment and communications.

I'm an also advisor for the adventurous TEDxUCLA. I recently gave a talk on how the unknown can inspire creativity and invention.

I'm a big beliver in design thinking. When I worked in art and design education, I started a series of video and written interviews with creative people about their processes: Grammy-winning designer Masaki Koike, 3D typographer Andrew Byrom and paper artist Si Scott, for example.

A while back, I worked at Stanford University in health education and diversity and access programs. I like working for the common good.

I have a MA in Education from UC Berkeley, where I made a documentary called My Name is Teacher. Later, I completed the conservatory program in improvisation at Second City and once performed at the Upright Citizens Brigade in NYC. I also dabbled in trapeze school.

At home, I'm writing a collection of stories about being a third culture kid. I grew up in South Africa, Sweden, Portugal and, briefly, the Philippines.

I appreciate empathetic comedy, autobiographies, warm swimming pools and bread pudding. Also, this photo, which I took at dusk in Ronda, Spain.