Karen Lindsey, assistant professor of strategic communications, is connecting with students one conversation at a time.
Inclusive excellence often emerges in surprising ways, leading individuals to personal fulfillment and benefiting others. This was true for Assistant Professor of Strategic Communications Karen Lindsey, who, despite not initially planning to teach, felt compelled to mentor the next generation of professional communicators.
As she progressed in her career in corporate marketing and public relations, Lindsey realized not many people looked like her in executive roles.
“The invisibility and hypervisibility as a Black woman working in public relations leadership was palpable,” she said. “I vowed to be a guiding light for young women, especially Black and brown women aspiring to leadership.”
Through mentoring her junior staff, Lindsey realized a calling for teaching, which would allow her to empower future generations and help create a more diverse pipeline of PR professionals. She pivoted from a PR agency vice president to an administrator in higher education. While doing the latter, she taught evening classes at a university and found being in the classroom was deeply rewarding. Aware of the prerequisites to teach at the university level Lindsey began teaching full-time at Texas Christian University in 2017 and completed her doctorate in 2019.
“I want students to know that paths to fulfilling careers do not always go in a straight line, but finding a fulfilling career is always possible,” Lindsey said.
Lindsey came to Elon in 2021, and when the School of Communications adopted an Inclusive Communications course, she quickly stepped up to assist with the course redesign and to ensure that students learned theory and application of inclusive communications. She wanted the course to promote critical thinking about how brands and the media influence the perceptions of marginalized communities and identities.
“It’s been deeply fulfilling for my mentoring efforts, teaching, and research to be supported here at Elon,” said Lindsey.
Outside the classroom, she emphasizes building community across campus and growing mentoring relationships with students, especially those from underrepresented and historically marginalized communities, as they navigate academic relationships with professors and make career decisions. When she’s not teaching, Lindsey can regularly be found having coffee with a student. She tells students it’s OK to say hello to professors and speak to someone as they pass each other on campus.
“When we say hello, look into another person’s eyes, or offer a knowing smile, it connects us and encourages us in ways that we don’t often realize,” Lindsey said. “I hope students are encouraged to meet and be in community with someone who may not share their same identity. Whether it’s faculty, staff, or another student.”
This commitment to seeing and sharing stories that are often unheard is reflected in her research, which focuses on amplifying workplace experiences and leadership identity development among Black women in corporate and PR agency environments.
Lindsey recently co-authored an academic textbook that guides students in applying a multicultural lens across all aspects of strategic communications research and creation.
“I often say diversity and inclusion are not problems to be solved but opportunities waiting to be realized,” she said.
Lindsey is part of Huemanity of People, a series by the Division of Inclusive Excellence that celebrates the diversity of Elon’s community. Nominate a member of the Elon community for this series.