Who is Karen Dean?

Karen Dean is a powerhouse of wisdom—real, gritty, hard-earned wisdom that you can’t learn from a book but only through surviving life's toughest battles. 

Karen is a highly-rated inspirational speaker, bestselling author and resilience expert with 25+ years of experience helping people not just survive, but thrive, in their careers, businesses and personal lives. Karen works with individuals, groups, and organizations to help build stronger, more successful, people and workforces with easy-to-implement tools to foster resilience, boost team performance, and enhance workplace culture.

She shares her own personal stories of resilience, in addition to proven tools for success, while inspiring audiences and clients with an amazing sense of positivity.

She has been featured on CBC, Global TV, CTV Atlantic, and Eastlink Community TV's Women Now, as well as numerous podcasts around the world.

Recognized by the RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards as a Nominee four times, Karen has operated successful businesses in many different industries for over 25 years.  Among her many business accomplishments, one of her proudest moments was being one of only two women to ever be elected to the Farmer’s Dairy Board of Directors. 

Karen believes in paying it forward and, since 2018, she has raised almost $150,000 for families in need in Nova Scotia. She was honoured to be chosen as the recipient of the QueenPin (Halifax) award in 2020 for her commitment to improving her community.  And, in 2022, she was awarded the Mission Integration award for the Halifax candidates of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada Visionary of the Year campaign.

In November 2020, Karen self-published her first book, We Are Unbreakable: Raw, Real Stories of Resilience from Women in Nova Scotia in 2020. The book is a collection of authentic and inspiring stories about the unprecedented year of 2020 written by 22 incredible women who call Nova Scotia home.  We Are Unbreakable was an Amazon category best-seller for over 6 months and is also a Canadian bestseller.  A portion of the proceeds from this book has established an education fund for women in rural Nova Scotia.

In 2022, she published Fierce & Fabulous: A Self-Love Journal which provides readers with a daily practice to reconnect to their inner self and become even more successful, both personally and professionally.

Karen is the proud solo parent to three amazing humans who she points to as not only a source of joy but as her greatest accomplishments. 

Karen’s messages spring from a mountain of lived experience.  She is a wealth of knowledge -- real-life knowledge, the stuff you can’t learn from a book, but only through surviving and thriving through unbelievable challenges.  And she is passionate about her mission to guide people on a path to greater success and fulfillment in their lives,  careers and entrepreneurial endeavours, and not just survive, but thrive, both personally and professionally.