I have worked for the U of A System Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service for three years. I am the Digital & IT Innovation Manager for the Division of Agriculture, the first person to hold this position. Karen is responsible for the identification of new and emerging technologies and how to integrate them into existing applications and development of new applications for the Division of Agriculture. Including educating, training, and supporting stakeholders on new technologies. She is also responsible for project managing web applications, the application development team, and all things related to data. I also travel and participate in Hackathons across the United States.

I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Science, Data Science Graduate Certificate, and Master of Science degree in Information Science from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and is currently working on a Ph.D. in Computer and Information Science.

When I am not working at Extension, I am a Graduate Research Assistant for Collaboratiorium for Social Media and Online Behavioral Studies (COSMOS) at UA Little Rock. At COSMOS, we are studying various aspects of social media and online behavior – the good, bad and the ugly. From Autism awareness campaigns to ISIS’ and anti-West/anti-NATO propaganda campaigns. With COSMOS, I collaborate on social media mining tools called Blogtrackers and Youtubetrackers, and a COVID-19 Misinformation Website that is in partnership with the Arkansas Attorney General to track false COVID-19 Websites and Online Scams. I am also researching developing strategies to fight disinformation campaigns online using blockchain technology and misinformation in Agriculture.