Kari was born in Alaska but grew up in England and California, finally to return to Alaska almost twenty-five years ago. She graduated from UC Berkeley with an undergraduate degree in geography and graduate degrees in City and Regional Planning and Landscape Architecture, with an emphasis on environmental planning. During her professional career, she has worked entirely with non-profits in a variety of roles, including educating advocates on how to use GIS datasets with Ecotrust; researching water conservation and recycling with the Conservation Law Foundation; managing volunteers for Earthwatch; coordinating programs for Alaska World Affairs Council; managing outreach for Partners for Progress; and for twenty years as Program Manager, managing membership, public programs, board support, databases, and grant writing for Alaska Common Ground.
She joined the Alaska Common Ground board because she finds the mission to be compelling and something she has been proud to work towards for so long. She plans to continue working on unbiased, nonpartisan programs that help inform an engaged Alaskan democracy.