Ms. Henken’s work focuses on fostering organizational growth, social impact and system change through social innovation and entrepreneurship. For the last 9 years, Ms. Henken has served as adjunct faculty at University of San Diego, teaching social innovation, design thinking and social entrepreneurship at the Kroc School and the School of Business. She is also a visiting professor at University of California, San Diego and in Colombia, working with two universities. She works with regional and global social enterprises, NGOs and corporations to help them advance their success through sustainable business models and serves on several boards.
For over 20 years, Ms. Henken served as the founder and principal of Henken & Associates, helping businesses and nonprofits develop market opportunities, partnerships, growth strategies and sustainable revenue models to expand their impact. She spent 20+ years in Silicon Valley as an executive in high technology management, launching and growing international operations and partnerships for a wide range of companies from startups to Fortune 500 corporations. She holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.
Karen joined the board of Kitchens for Good because she believes in the transformational power of providing second chances. The power of food to change lives and culinary careers to create a sustainable living are one of the greatest opportunities that Kitchens for Good has created for those challenged by barriers to employment. Her vision for Kitchens for Good is to scale our solutions to provide culinary workforce opportunities to serve thousands facing these challenges across our region and beyond.
