Karen Peterson has spent more than 30 years teaching at Georgia Tech. She began her academic career at Georgia State University, where she earned her master’s degree, and later joined Georgia Tech’s Language Institute. There, she has taught courses across all proficiency levels, as well as in programs for CETL and Emory University’s Pre-MBA program. In addition to teaching, Ms.Peterson has contributed to curriculum development and course design. Her work has included developing a variety of new courses and participating in Georgia Tech’s first Coursera specialization. In 2013, she received the Curriculum Innovation Award in recognition of her curriculum work. Currently, she is working on a series of courses for healthcare professionals.

Her teaching and professional interests have consistently centered on supporting students as they navigate academic, professional, and global challenges. As part of this work, she has engaged in design-thinking initiatives and faculty innovation programs, including participation in IDEO’s Teacher2Teacher Challenge, VentureLab programming, and the Center for Deliberate Innovation. She also served on the planning committee for Innov8@ga.org, an organization focused on entrepreneurship education in higher education. Her work has included international engagement, such as leading teams in Tajikistan to work with university faculty, as well as traveling on nonprofit and church teams to Brazil, Bosnia, China, Croatia, Haiti, Japan, and Russia. 

More recently, she has had the privilege of serving on faculty governance as part of the Faculty Advisory Committee and Faculty Executive Board. Her passion now is to support, advocate, elevate and celebrate faculty in order to improve their human condition.