Now in her second year as principal of Audubon Elementary School, Karen Dickens has varied experience in education.  Prior to coming to Audubon she co-developed the district’s New Teacher Support Program and offered mentoring support to brand new teachers in Lake Washington School District for five years. In addition she served as Vice Principal at Samantha Smith Elementary and taught in several Lake Washington School District elementary schools including Samantha Smith, Emily Dickinson, Margaret Mead and Elizabeth Blackwell. Before re-locating to Washington in 1991, Ms. Dickens taught special education classes in Southern California.

Ms. Dickens has always had a passion for teaching. As a child she remembers playing school, “I remember the day my father brought home a chalkboard and hung it in the garage for me. After that you could always find me passing papers out to my invisible students.”  Ms. Dickens believes that children come first and for that reason keeps students at the center of every decision she makes.

Friends and family are important to Ms. Dickens. She enjoys spending time with her daughter, Jenny, who is currently completing her student teaching experience; soon to be a high school foreign language teacher. Ms. Dickens visits her two brothers and dad in Southern California whenever she can steal away for a weekend.