top of page

I'm an art history professor at a liberal arts college, where I have navigated the tenure track, taught my heart out, published a book, served as a campus leader, and become a mom.  As your coach, I’m a down-to-earth, thoughtful guide for connecting with your own wisdom, strength, and resources.

Hello!  I'm Karen. 

I help faculty interrupt cycles of overwork & impossible standards to make space for what matters.
KarenBranding_44.jpg

The Good Enough Professor Manifesto

I am for an academia that nurtures process and becoming over perfection and competition.  

I am for an academia that prizes wandering, wrong directions, dead ends, and failures as the basis of lifelong learning.

I am for an academia that embraces an ethics of kindness and empathy.

I am for an academia that invites us all to be good enough rather than requiring excellence at any cost.

I am for an academia that replenishes us with rest rather than demanding ever more labor.

I am for an academia that rebuilds itself to salve the pain of its community members. 

I am for an academia that sprouts “hellos” in the hall, lunch dates, walks on campus, unexpected collaborations, and passionate disagreement.

I am for an academia that divests itself of greed and exploitation in all its forms.

I am for an academia that welcomes our personal lives and full emotional selves as central facets of our wisdom.

I am for an academia that apologizes when it’s wrong, that learns to do better while righting the harm it has done.  

I am for an academia that remakes itself in the image of the global majority.

I am for an academia that initiates its own destruction in order to regenerate itself as ever more just.  

I am for an academia that invites us to build a radical vision, together.  

I am for an academia that nourishes our entire collective being.

Coaching was a good chance to reflect on where I've been as a leader and how I want to move forward. It felt like a very non-judgemental space that allowed me to gain some insight into my style of leadership and feel empowered to further embrace my role leading a center. I realized that my ideas of ideal leadership were all extroverted leaders. Acknowledging and accepting that I'm an introverted leader helped me re-adjust my expectations for myself.  I feel more empowered to move forward on some initiatives on my own. I feel more confident realizing that I could lead in my own way--there are multiple ways to be a good leader.

More about me

My multi-disciplinary training in art history, performance studies, trauma studies, and religious studies provided me with deep insights into the significance of affect, and the use of embodied and visual strategies for processing feelings and ideas.

 

My 1:1 coaching and my workshops combine tools of active learning, disability justice, anti-racist pedagogy, trauma-informed teaching, and culturally-responsive practices; techniques from trauma studies, performance studies, and art history; and strategies I learned working in faculty development and in training and practicing life coaching.

 

I trained as a life coach with the Co-Active Training Institute and certified as a Co-Active Professional Certified Coach (CPCC).  I'm currently working toward accreditation as an Associate Certified Coach (ACC) via the International Coaching Federation (ICF).  I take coaching ethics seriously and encourage you to review the industry ethical commitments before working with me or any coach.

​

As a White woman, I am committed to excavating how White supremacy culture and ableism have shaped my own experiences and building intentional, anti-racist, disability-justice, trauma-informed ways of being a human, professor, and coach.  With faculty, I center self-reflection as a powerful tool for grappling with the on-going complexities of our intersectional identities and experiences.

My newsletter is the place where I share resources based on the rhythms of academic life, open up about the joys and challenges of my own academic life. 
KarenBranding_50.jpg
bottom of page