Karen completed her undergraduate studies at Monash University, undertaking a double degree in a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Science with majors in Archaeology and Ancient History, Anthropology, and Genetics. She was then accepted into the Honours program at La Trobe University to work with Dr. R John Mitchell as a part of the Genographic Project, completing a thesis titled “The Maternal Ancestry of Aboriginal Australia: Mitochondrial Haplogroup S”. Following this, Karen moved to Canberra to complete the Masters of Biological Anthropology (Advanced) at the Australian National University, specialising in human osteology and completing an internship at the Centre for Human Anatomy Education, Monash University under Dr Justin Adams. As a part of this program, Karen also completed a research dissertation under the supervision of Prof. Marc Oxenham titled “A Comparative Study of Enamel Hypoplasia in the Lapita Sites of Teouma, Vanuatu, and Talasiu, Tonga”, for which she received first class honours and was awarded the University Medal for her academic achievement over the course of her Masters program. Karen is currently a PhD candidate at the Australian National University, working in Dr Justyna Miszkiewicz’s research group. Her research investigates the changes to bone microstructure as a result of treponemal infection, primarily through histological analysis of undecalcified archaeological human bone.