About the Author

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Karen Catlin is a highly acclaimed workplace influencer, speaker, and author. She has published four books: Better Allies: Everyday Actions to Create Inclusive, Engaging Workplaces (2019), The Better Allies™ Approach to Hiring (2020), Belonging in Healthcare (2022), and The Better Allies Way: A Workbook for Being More Inclusive at Work (2024). She also emails a roundup of 5 Ally Actions to 40,000+ newsletter subscribers every Friday.

Previously, Karen spent 25 years building software products and serving as a vice president of engineering at Adobe. During that time, she witnessed a sharp decline in the number of women working in tech. Frustrated but galvanized, she knew it was time to switch gears and focus on creating better workplaces where everyone could do their best work and thrive.

In 2014, Karen somewhat naively set off to change workplaces around the world. Her first step was starting the Twitter handle @BetterAllies to share simple, actionable steps that anyone could take to improve their workplace culture. That Twitter handle became the inspiration for her books.

A self-professed public speaking geek, Karen is a highly sought-after and engaging presenter who has delivered talks at hundreds of conferences and corporate events. Her TEDx talk, Women in Tech: The Missing Force, explores the decline in gender diversity in tech, why it’s a problem, and what can be done about it.

In addition to speaking herself, Karen is determined to change the ratio of those on stage giving keynotes and other presentations. To support her goal of bringing more diversity to speaker lineups at tech industry events, she coauthored the book Present! A Techie’s Guide to Public Speaking with Poornima Vijayashanker. Their LinkedIn Learning course based on this book is part of Toastmaster International’s certificate program.

Karen also coaches women to be stronger leaders and people to be better allies. Her client roster includes Airbnb, DoorDash, Google, eBay, and Intuit. Her writing on leadership has appeared in Inc., the Daily Beast, Fast Company, and the Muse, and she’s consulted on articles for the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and the New York Times.

Karen holds a bachelor of science in Computer Science from Brown University and is a member of the board of directors of Digital NEST. In 2015, the California State Assembly honored Karen with the Wonder Women Tech Innovator Award for outstanding achievements in business and technology and for being a role model for women. And In 2020, her unique approach to allyship was featured in the BBC’s Ally Track tool.

For speaking engagements and all other inquiries, contact us at info@betterallies.com.