Karen’s research focuses on sustainable development, with a particular interest in climate and environmental policy and governance. She defended her Ph.D. at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences in December 2023. The dissertation studies land use governance processes in selected Norwegian municipalities, with a focus on drivers, processes and changes that have affected environmental sustainability in and around the municipalities’ urban settlements.

Karen has been employed as a researcher at Western Norway Research Institute since the summer of 2015. Since then, she has worked on various research projects with a focus on sustainable consumption, climate transformation and sustainable land use.

Karen has a master's degree in Environment and Development from The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) at the University of London from 2014, and a combined bachelor's degree in International Relations and Communication, Media and Culture from Oxford Brookes University from 2013.