Karen Lanier is a naturalist, documentarian, teacher, artist, and gardener. She’s worked as a seasonal park ranger in national and state parks from California to Maine, and wildlife has always been a close ally in her work of connecting people with their environments. By creating a documentary in Brazil about a reforestation project, she knew that her mission would be to highlight the good deeds that humans are capable of where nature and culture intersect.

Her career path has been long and winding, yet she has always found a way to communicate the preciousness of the natural world to her audience. Karen holds degrees in photography, French, and environmental documentation as well as professional environmental educator certification. She is actively involved with the Lexington, Kentucky, chapter of Wild Ones: Native Plants, Natural Landscapes, and she works closely with Kentucky Association of Environmental Education. While she still thrives in the midst of the wilderness, she finds encouragement in the butterflies and bees that magically appear every summer, finding nourishment from the flowering native sunflowers that frame her patio, in the middle of downtown Lexington.