Karen Carlson

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ABC 4 News anchor Karen Carlson is an Emmy Award winning journalist whose work has spanned the country, from Los Angeles to New Orleans. A native of Seattle, she has family in Salt Lake City and is proud to call the Beehive State her home.

Her stories range from Ronald Reagan’s funeral and the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, to the Oscars and Grammy Awards. But the most important story – and significant event of her life – was Hurricane Katrina. Carlson broke the news about the devastation of the Lower Ninth Ward eight hours before CNN, while the rest of the country was reporting New Orleans had “dodged the bullet.” She worked 20 hours a day, sleeping in her car and filing live reports from 6am until 11pm for more than a week straight in deplorable and frightening conditions. Upon her return to her newsroom in Los Angeles, she found out the storm had claimed the life of her friend – Sgt Paul Accardo from the New Orleans police department was one of the two NOPD officers who committed suicide in the aftermath of Katrina.

That was the turning point in Carlson’s life. Each story she did had a different level to it, and she knew something had to be done to help the city. She knew she couldn’t build a house or write a government grant, but did know how to do TV, so she created a television show that focused on the evolution of the tourism industry in New Orleans, post-Katrina. It showed the resilience of the residents there, for whom every day following the storm was a challenge. For those who have not been to the city, tourism officials say anywhere between 40-90% of the economy there is tourism-based, making it one of the most important factors in the city’s recovery. The show aired in over 50 countries and on the Travel Channel paid programming block in 2008. From this work, her high-definition television production company was named one of the Top 25 female-owned small businesses in America.

Personally, Carlson has traveled the world. Her parents met overseas while working for the American Consulate in Kobe, Japan. It was love at first sight for them and they’ve been married for over 40 years. It was their love of travel and interest in others that inspired Karen to experience other cultures around the world. Her most recent travels have been to the former Baltic States -- Lithuania, Lativa and Estonia. Seeing how the rest of the world lives makes her appreciate all we have in the United States. In her spare time, she bakes, spends time oil painting and continues writing her book on her experiences during Hurricane Katrina. Her favorite animal is the English Bulldog.

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