Karen Sommer Shalett

As the Director of Global Advocacy and Communications, Karen Sommer Shalett works to strategically amplify the Templeton World Charity Foundation’s thought leadership, advocacy initiatives and grantee’s impact. Karen has more than 20 years of creating high-impact communications packages to shift policy and funding.

Prior to becoming an advisor for TWCF, Karen oversaw a team leveraging traditional, digital and multimedia technology to support the work of the global health organization PSI and its network of more than 50 countries. As Editor-at-Large for the Aspen Institute, an educational and policy studies think tank, she built content verticals that tripled the organizations’ digital audience and engagement.

Karen covered the international cultural landscape of fashion, art, architecture and design as a journalist for 15 years. Her writing and editing spanned publications ranging from the Washington Post to Conde Nast’s Lucky magazine to the International Herald Tribune. Her work following the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina earned her a Louisiana Press Association award on behalf of the New Orleans Times-Picayune.