Karen Walrond is a multi-threat thought leader and creative light—and one damn fine friend (she and I go way back to TK, and in 2020, she joined Brené Brown Education

and Research Group as Senior Director of Global). A lawyer, leadership coach, photographer, author, and activist, Karen is wildly convinced you’re uncommonly beautiful. And her latest book, The Lightmaker’s Manifesto: How to Work for Change without Losing Your Joy, will help you name the skills, gifts, values, and actions that bring you joy; identify the causes that spark your empathy and concern; and then put it all together to change the world.

Born in Trinidad and Tobago, Karen currently lives in Houston, Texas, with her British husband, Marcus; their American daughter, Alexis; and Soca, the super mutt.

Vulnerability is __.

Courage is __.

Vulnerable,

What role does vulnerability play in your work and your life?

As a photographer, the best photographs are ones in which I’m able to capture my subject’s vulnerability—and the only way to do that in a way that doesn’t feel exploitative is to be vulnerable in kind. Vulnerability, therefore, plays a huge part in my work, and the practice of this vulnerability helps me to be more “comfortable in the discomfort” of vulnerability in my life.