Karen Terry

Biography

I like to think that I help people believe in themselves again. I left college a filmmaker and gradually became a writer, a teacher, and a coach. What connects all of those is a fascination with the human story. I think people are fundamentally robust and resourceful—capable of facing change and coming up with good responses, once we get out of our way and tap our strengths.

The first four decades of my career I chased the human story as a journalist, award-winning scriptwriter and TV producer, PR professional, marketing writer, creative team member, and interviewer. I worked in corporate television at AT&T; then I was an independent creative; then I wrote for a marketing agency. Mid-life, I went back to school and decided to study adult human development and coaching.

I have bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan, a master’s degree in Radio-TV-Film from Northwestern, and a second master’s degree in Transformational Leadership & Coaching from Wright Graduate University. I also have a doctorate in Transformational Leadership & Coaching from Wright Graduate University. For five years, I was a Coaching Fellow at Modern Health, an online global platform for workplace mental health, during which time I conducted more than 1,500 coaching sessions. I have been a Lecturer and Coach Educator at Northwestern since 2017, focused on executive learning and organizational change. I’ve also been an Assistant Professor of Transformational Leadership & Coaching at Maharishi International University in Fairfield, IA, where I taught and mentored graduate students in human development and social-emotional intelligence and helped design doctoral-level research.

Currently, I am Vice President for Editorial Operations & Content Strategy for the Women’s Leadership Center at Williams Bay. The Women’s Leadership Center is a transformative organization invested in creating a future where women leaders are at the forefront of business, science, design, technology, and discovery.