Karen Walrond

Photographer + storyteller
Chookooloonks Media LLC

She is a former engineer and a current (though non-practicing) attorney. (This means that in the off-chance you find yourself in trouble, while she'd love to help you out, she's more likely going to refer your case to someone with malpractice insurance.)

These days, Karen combines her extensive executive corporate experience with her photography, writing and digital desktop skills to develop articles, online essays, digital stories and marketing pieces. She is a sought-after keynote speaker, including having covered topics as varied as parenthood, social media and women in leadership. She has appeared on both local and national television shows and other news media, including The Huffington Post, being quoted on CNN.com and making an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

She is known to take random self-portraits in mirrors in her entryway.

Karen is the author of Chookooloonks, an award-winning photoblog. Her fine art photography pieces and projects have been included in exhibits around the country. She is a contributor to the book Expressive Photography: A Shutter Sisters' Guide to Shooting from the Heart, a guide for beginning and intermediate photographers for adding heart and soul to their imagery. Karen's writing, images and other projects have been featured on CNN.com, Good Housekeeping and Wondertime magazines among others.

Karen's bestselling book, The Beauty of Different, is a chronicle of imagery and portraiture, combined with written essays and observations on the concept that what makes us different makes us beautiful -- and may even be the source of our superpowers. It is available from Bright Sky Press, Barnes & Noble and Amazon. The book inspired BlogHer's Own Your Beauty initiative, where Karen was the lead blogger, and which also appeared as part of USA Today's OwnIt campaign.

Karen is originally from Trinidad & Tobago, but currently lives in Houston, Texas with Marcus (her English husband), Alex (her American daughter), and Rufus the Wonderdog. She holds a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from Texas A&M University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Houston.