Karen Randolph

Karen Randolph Quick Facts

I have had a long history of sharing information on large scales. During the 90s I was an environmental journalist working for an independent television production company in San Francisco, CA. The program we produced was called IMPACT,  and it was syndicated in 85 national markets including New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. These were the top national markents in the 1990s. Through IMPACT we were free of the traditional network scrutiny (the people who owned the production company knew very little about what their role as 'gatekeepers' was meant to be), so our research, production, and  reporting staff were able to scoop the major networks (at that time ABC, CBS, and NBC) on a number of pivotal pieces. For example; IMPACT was first to report the seriousness of Gulf War Syndrome (this was from the 1st Gulf War); IMPACT was the only news source with access to the government researcher who had uncovered precisely what was making the returning Gulf War Veterans sick; the researcher found that the combination of the DDT sprayed on the blankets provided to the soldiers and the pills the soldiers were forced to take to protect them against Anthrax caused a deadly reaction.

The wives of returning husbands explained that once their husbands returned, their husbands' sperm burned within them as though it were 'hot lava'. Additionally, many wives reported that when their husbands returned, their children tore through their husbands' duffle bags in search of presents. Within days after rifling through duffle bags, the children presented with large red rashes, which nearly covered their entire bodies. Moreover, some of the women who became pregnant after their husbands returned gave birth to infants missing limbs (either arms or legs) or with only partially developed brains. Doctors whom we interviewed explained that they had attempted many times to reach the DOD in efforts to make their findings official, but their findings were more often than not ignored.

IMPACT also was the first news agency to report the high-level of pollution within the Great Lakes Area. The effects of the pollution on the birds, fish, and now people in this area is only now being attended to.

IMPACT led the reporting on the effects that dumping dioxin in the rivers in Florida has had on crocodiles and panthers; essentially, males of these two groups of animals react to the dioxin by storing too much estrogen-like hormones and are therefore unable to become wholly male, unable to successfully mate. The longer paper plants are legally free to dump dioxin into the water, the sooner these panthers and crocdiles will become extinct.

IMPACT produced news pieces on a number of other controversial topics as well. After three years, IMPACT, however, was cancelled. I was surprised that we had lasted as long as we had; however, I believe that we did the best we could to tell people about important things that were happening and about ways that they could get involved.

Once IMPACT was cancelled, I worked on WildGuide, a program that aired on the Animal Channel, which was produced by Westinghouse and hosted by Margaux Hemingway. The program traveled to international locations such as Australia, Beliz, Africa, and Scotland. The first season did quite well, and we were picked up for a second season, but with Margaux Hemingway's death, everyone concerned agreed that a second season with a different host would be in bad taste.

So from WildGuide I worked on several films that were shot in San Francisco. I also worked as associate producer on a documentary about eating disorders. Additionally, I worked on infomercials and comercials. Working in this way was not fulfilling enough, however, so I decided to try teaching instead.

I had attended San Francisco State University, and when I had graduated, I had earned an MA in the Social Aspects of the Media. Having an MA was all I needed to teach within the CSU system, and all of my former professors remembered me and were happy to have me back as a teacher. So I began in the Television Broadcasting Department.

Within that department I taught Performance, Interviewing Skills, Research for Broadcasting, and Social Aspects of the Media. After two years in this department, I moved to the Business Department where I taught Business Communication. This course included teaching the following skills: writing business memos, writing business letters, public speaking projects (1 individual for 5 min., 2 group presentations 20 min., each) working and writing as a group two projects 1) Inter-cultural Communication project. 2) Crisis Communication Plan.

In all of the Business Communication classes the majority of students were International students. The percentages of the class were as follows: International students 80%; ESL students 15%; American born native-English speakers 5%.

Because of this complex student population, I was 1) very specific about creating groups within the classroom. I would not allow students to create their own groups because if I did then students would create groups made up of their friends; in that way they would never truly learn anything about how groups (real groups made up of people unknown to you) work, nor would they ever learn anything about all of the 'others' in the class.

Groups, for the most part, go through five steps in order to be successful. These steps are 1) Forming-members come together and they check one another out in an effort to determine whether or not they can work with anyone in the group. This step is very much like dogs coming together and sniffing one another's...time must be allowed for this step to be completed.

2) Norming-after the Forming process, members attempt to normalize the group. During this part of the process, members announce which roles they want to take on, or they accept roles that the more vocal members of the group assign them. Once this is 'complete', the group attempts to move foreward. But...

3) Storming-everything suddenly falls apart. The one person who takes control of everything from the beginning (and there is always that one person) is suddenly facing a mutiny by other group members who believe they were never given their say. Other members believe that they are doing all the work, while one or two member do nothing (isn't this just always the way?). Storming is a completely natural part of the process. I always explain to students before we even get into groups that they will go through storming, that they must go through storming, and that when they realize they are going through storming, they must make an appointment with me to meet in my office so that I can help them go through storming mindfully. And that is what they do.

4) Performing-Once they've gone through storming, the members begin to perform. But often they do return to storming, and they then make an appointment with me, but sometimes they do go through the storming stage quite successfully themselves.

5) Adjourning-Adjourning is a big deal, and it must be celebrated, and we do.

Anyway, from the Business Department I moved to the English Composition Department. While teaching in this department, I decided that I wanted to earn a second MA in English Composition and an MA in Literature. At the same time I was also teaching at the University of San Francisco, and I decided that I also wanted to earn my doctorate in Educational Psychology from USF. So I ended up teaching full-time and attending school full-time. I earned my degrees in 2003.

By 2006 the CSU system had changed dramatically; no longer would they accept students whom they classified as 'remedial' in reading or writing. These were the students who I was most happy teaching; these students, having made it this far, were not students who were ready to give up; these were students who were completely comitted to learning, and because of the non-traditionally academic backgrounds these students had come from, their perspectives of learning, and their ways of thinking were freer and more creative than the students who had been preped for college all their lives.

So, basically when these students left, so did I. For many reasons I chose to enroll in the National Holistic Institute of Massage in Emeryville, CA. At first, being in a 'trade' school was a daunting change. I had been so deeply emerged in academics for so long, and had never experienced the 'trade' school environment, so I had to give myself some time to adjust; I needed, as it turned out, six months. For the first six months I did not know what to say to anyone around me, nor did I know how to respond to any of the material we were practicing; it wasn't until the six month point; the class that was scheduled for that day was "How to respond if one of our clients should have an emotional release during a massage session." This was a topic I could talk about because, as I attended school in the evenings, I worked in NHI's public clinic during the day, and on evenings when not in class in order to pay for school, so I already had had a lot of experience providing massage. Several of my clients had had emotional responses during my sessions. So I shared my experiences. These were some of the first words I had spoken a loud since school had begun. Other than interpreting Zen Koans that were read to us before each class (I was a bit older than the other students, an avid reader of Zen Buddhism, and, as I said, academic), I rarely said anything.

Well after I had described my sessions, one thing led to another, and suddenly, all of us students were sitting in a large circle facing one another telling one another how we felt about each other. We talked about how close we had grown, and people told me that they loved what I had said, and wanted me to talk more. After that evening I couldn't stop talking.

Now several years later I continue to keep in touch with many on a regular basis. And I continue to learn new modalities and write and publish pieces about mental, physical, and spiritual health.

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