Karen is a former medical journalist, a published writer and editor who has been writing engaging content and clear messaging through print and online media for more than 15 years. She began writing news articles for the Medical Post in Toronto and travelling across Canada and the U.S. to report on medical conferences. She focused on areas of family medicine, women’s health (obstetrics and gynecology), psychiatry and rural medicine.
Her articles have been published in the Medical Post, Obstetrics and Gynaecology Canada, Gastroenterology Canada, Dermatology Times of Canada, Nutrition Post, Chatelaine, Kingston Life, Canadian Health, Queen’s Alumni Review, Queen’s Gazette (e)Affect Research (a Queen’s University research publication) Great Rated! – Great Place to Work and Your Workplace, a national business publication dedicated to fostering healthy workplaces and progressive businesses in Canada.
Karen worked as an Associate Editor and Social Media Specialist at Your Workplace. There she was responsible for the print and online content for the magazine, and interviewed business experts on topics of progressive work culture in Canada. She was involved in the rebranding of the publication, and collaborated with the department of sales, designers, freelancers and the publisher to recreate a publication to appeal to a national audience of business professionals across Canada. She also wrote a corporate blog and weekly E-newsletter, and expanded the social media presence, increasing followers and monthly unique visitors (UVs).
Karen can be found, pen or phone in one hand, rooibos tea in the other, weaning out the latest health, wellness and nutrition trends, with the help of experts including physicians, naturopaths, researchers and business experts.
During her time at the Medical Post she occasionally wrote feature articles on organizations such as Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders Canada) and the chartable medical exchange program CISEPO, linking Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians. She remembers well the quote she received from CISEPO founder Dr. Noyek, chief of otolaryngology at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital. “Disease knows no boundaries.” CISEPO allows for dialogue and the opportunity for countries experiencing conflict to work toward the common goal of improving health.
She adopts a similar integrative approach for the writing of her blog (Cedar and Cinnamon) on natural, healthy living and offers her own unique, “tried, tested and true” perspective on women’s health and general health, nutrition, fitness trends in Canada.
When she is not working she enjoys running (ideally through a forest); learning more about healthy living (old and new); creating the best, healthiest recipes; photographing her cats, rural landscapes and people; live concerts and “musique Francaise”; going on “Canadiana” road trips (pre-Covid); blogging, reading Victorian literature and magazines and drinking rooibos/chai tea.
