Karen J. Wagner’s
professional biography
A graduate of
Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, Ms. Wagner
holds a Masters Degree in Educational
Psychology, specializing in Adolescents at Risk and
Prevention Models. Here specialities are non-violent conflict
resolution and mediation training; school reform strategies; school
to work initiatives; developmental education and counselling
strategies; experiential education and expeditionary learning.and No
Child Left Behind initiatives. Utilizing a strength-based
developmental approach, Ms. Wagner helps schools (and individuals or
districts) identify what strategies, approaches, and techniques are
already working well for them and then assists them in building a
customized program of continuous improvement.
She is a board
member of The Healing Forrest Foundation, Inc., and an active member
of The Play Foundation (an international education foundation based
in Denmark),
She is a member of
The Harvard Alumni Association, The World Teacher’s Society and
Harvard’s Family Involvement Network of Educators. Wagner
Consulting Services, LLC is her company that deals primarily with
education institutions and school development concerns and CHIME
consulting, LLC: Continuous Human Improvement Metamodel
Experts is her consultancy firm that works/plays with
individuals, couples, families and companies.
Karen Wagner has been working in alternative
educational and therapeutic settings since 1985. She began her
career working for The Middlesex County Sheriff’s Department at
The House of Correction in Billerica, MA (a medium security prison)
as an educational consultant. From there she went on to develop
alternative school programs and founded and directed The Lowell
Middlesex Academy Charter School in Lowell, Massachusetts. This
premier charter school was developed as a partnership between the
Lowell Public School Department and Middlesex Community College (a
Middle College High School) aimed at recapturing high school
dropouts, expulsions and suspensions. Under her leadership, it was
the first charter high school in the USA to be accredited by The New
England Association of Schools and Colleges. It is presently a
national award winning model charter school that has consistently
surpassed the local high school in the Massachusetts Comprehensive
Assessment Tests.
Working in collaboration with public, private, business
and community partners, Ms. Wagner is enormously successful at
developing education and treatment models that reintegrate former
youth in "at-risk" situations (gangs, drugs, crime and
teen parents) with the workforce and higher education. Ms. Wagner
has presented at many local and national education conferences
including The National Charter School Conferences held in
Washington, DC and hosted by Lamar Alexander (1994) and Richard
Riley (1998). She has worked as a consultant to many United States
school districts and charter schools.
IN 1999, she took her collective strategies throughout
the United States and worked in management positions at centers in
Colorado, New York and Georgia. Currently, she is writing a book on
education transformation strategies and an interdisciplinary
curriculum. Ms. Wagner is the former Education Director at The
Polestar School (an experiential education private school model) in
Atlanta, Georgia. She does private consulting for individuals,
schools and school districts and works with the court system as an
expert witness on Children At Risk & Resiliency Factors. In
addition, Ms. Wagner facilitates personal development and teacher
training workshops for Burge Enterprises of Roswell, GA. She
lives with her husband, Michael, and her German Shepherd service
dog, Libra, in Marietta, GA.