KAREN PEDERSEN BAYUS | DIRECTOR-AT-LARGE

Karen has been advocating for typical, inclusive lives for individuals with disabilities since the 1980s, years before her 3rd child Christian, was born with Down Syndrome. Her long career as an educator was spent in St. Albert where she spearheaded inclusive Early Childhood Education in the 1990’s when her son started preschool. While Christian attended school in regular classrooms, Karen worked as an Inclusive Education Consultant, collaborating with jurisdiction leadership and learning teams to transform schools to being learning environments that are inclusive of each and every child. In 2011, Karen was seconded to work with the Government in the School Technology Branch where she was project manager for a Provincial initiative ‘Technology to Support Diversity” researching the role of technology to increase access to learning for students with learning challenges. In 2019, Karen worked with Inclusion Edmonton Region as a ‘Pathfinders Community Connector’ supporting individuals and their families to express their hopes and dreams for a good life and to help them make these dreams a reality. Karen believes in the proactive application of ‘Universal Design’ to all environments (community, recreational and educational) making them accessible to people with a wide range of abilities, interests and cultures. Karen lives in St. Albert with her husband, Steve, and son, Christian, now 31 years old. She loves being Grandma to Bedwen (2) and Jovian (1).