Karen Austin

Karen Austin is an author, storyteller, writer, and an intentional grief practitioner. Before the age of 25, Karen lost all four grandparents and her mom to natural causes, and her big brother to suicide. She is twice divorced and in 2017 said goodbye to her husband and best friend Tracy after a nine-month beautiful, horrid journey through pancreatic cancer. She uses grief and mourning as opportunity to learn more deeply about herself and the world. Her upcoming book about Tracy’s inspiring journey will be published in 2023.

Although she’s retired-ish now, Karen has had 30-something jobs, primarily in marketing and publishing (she’s lost count and doesn’t care), has ghost-written six books for clients and written hundreds of articles for newspapers and magazines.

This year she stepped down from six years (four as chair) on the board of LOSS Community Services in Columbus, Ohio, a nonprofit that provides services to suicide loss survivors. Karen is a certified and practicing grief companion, a certified grief educator and support group facilitator.

Oh. And she’s funny.