Community Volunteer
Salt Lake City, UT
For more than two decades, Karen Gardner Dee has been actively involved as a community volunteer in the Salt Lake City area, with a focus on education and the arts. She spent many years volunteering in underfunded local schools, providing teacher and student support in the classroom, tutoring students in reading, and leading initiatives to set up a science lab and experiential curriculum as well as other programs. Karen has also worked to support the arts in her community, and served from 2019 – 2022 as the Board Chair for Tanner Dance, an internationally respected children’s modern dance program at the University of Utah that serves thousands of children each year.
Prior to shifting her focus to raising children, Karen worked as a foreign policy staff researcher at the United States Senate and at INTELSAT, the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization in Washington D.C. In addition, she worked as Community Liaison/Grants Coordinator for the George S. and Dolores Dore’ Eccles Foundation in Salt Lake City.
Karen holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Stanford University and a Master’s degree in International Relations from the University of Cambridge. She enjoys reading, kayaking, traveling, cross-country skiing, and trying new cuisines. Karen and her husband David have four grown children.
DCI Fellow: David Dee