Karen Sconzert earned a B.A. in history from Lawrence University in 1987, then taught at private schools in Hammond, Ind., and Princeton, N.J., and the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools before serving as a qualitative researcher for the Consortium on Chicago School Research from 1994 to 2002. During this time she earned a Ph.D. in education from the University of Chicago in 2001. She was an assistant professor of education at Loyola University Chicago and at Ursinus College before she came to Carthage in 2007.