It would be easier to list the projects Karen Walker hasn’t been involved in at the Arkansas Educational Television Network in Conway than those she has.
Walker, 50, community-education coordinator at AETN, has been promoted several times since she was hired in 2006.
She describes herself as “Miss Resource,” because people tend to call her for everything.
“I either have a book, or I have a community partner who can help you,” she said.
Walker was born in Conway, but her father moved the family to Detroit when he got out of Vietnam and she was a toddler. Her grandparents lived in the Gold Creek community in Faulkner County, and her family came to visit for three weeks every August. It was a change of pace from the inner-city life to which Walker and her two younger siblings were accustomed.
“We loved it. We’d come feed the chickens and work in the garden,” she said.
When she graduated from high school at 17, Walker enrolled in Oakland Community College in Royal Oak, Michigan. Her father got sick, and she dropped out to help the family, she said. When she needed a break from city life, she moved to Arkansas to spend the summer with her relatives and ended up staying.
Even without a degree, she was a quick study and landed jobs easily. She worked at a life insurance company in Little Rock and as a secretary at the Conway Human Development Center, then started to take on “more leadership-role-type jobs,” she said.
Walker, who was divorced and had a daughter, decided to go back to school.
“I said, ‘I need to go back to college. I need to model that for my children,’” she said.
She married her husband, Andre, in 2001, and it took Walker seven years to finish her degrees while working and being a wife and mother of three. She has an associate degree from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway and a bachelor’s degree in political science with a minor in writing from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She was also a member of the political science honor society Pi Sigma Alpha. “I was very proud of that,” she said.
“I thought I wanted to teach,” she said. Walker also worked at UALR to help pay for her education. “I had lots of titles,” she said, laughing. She worked for the dean and vice provost of the graduate school; she managed the graduate-assistant program and also served as a facilitator for the Community Conversation on Race that the chancellor launched.
“I love higher ed; I love education,” she said.
Walker said she was one of the original five women, along with leader Thelma Moton, who launched the Choosing to Excel program in Conway. The program promotes healthy choices.
Moton said Walker has a wide range of talents. “This girl has — it’s like a floodgate of ideas; they just keep coming, and they’re excellent,” Moton said. “She’s creative.”
Moton also described Walker as dependable and responsible. “You can count on her. She’s there — and she’s thinking all the time; she’s a connector.
“She has her thumb on the pulse of how to work with kids and parents. She’s very insightful; she’ll do her research. When I was struggling to figure out, where is that safety net for young mothers? — as much as we want to prevent [teenage pregnancy], when it happens, where is that safety net? — she found that resource for us: Healthy Families of Arkansas. We’ve been using that and been funded through that for two years now. I had no idea that was available out there. She’ll use her resources; she’s unselfish. She’s a great partner and friend.”
In 2012, Walker launched a personal business: Rocks & Rubies — Adventures in Etiquette. It’s about manners and etiquette, but “mine is not the stuffy stuff,” she said with a laugh.
A child might not be the smartest, but teachers will respond better to a well-behaved child, Walker said.
“That’s what I’m trying to do, is bring back politeness and civility.” She said the most important manners for children to learn are “just the power words — please, thank you, you’re welcome, I’m sorry and excuse me — and to be kind. That takes you a long way, a very long way. It’s more important than chewing with your mouth closed and what fork to use.”
She conducts workshops and programs on etiquette at libraries and other venues. It landed her a job as a judge for the national American Miss Pageant in Columbia, Missouri, the past two years.
“A parent was observing me teaching this class — an etiquette class in a restaurant in Kansas City, Missouri. They gave my name to one of the pageant people there, and they contacted me.”
Walker said she tries to make teachable moments at home with her children, but she doesn’t insist on perfection.
“My son is exceptionally well-mannered,” she said. Tiffany Head, public-relations manager at AETN, agreed. “He is incredible,” she said.
Walker said her daughter has good manners, too, but added with a laugh: “Sometimes she goes off the grid.”
Walker said she saves a week of vacation each year “specifically to give back” and facilitates student workshops, such as the Do Right Dating workshop for the Conway School District. She also teaches skills for the “social-butterfly” badge for the Girl Scouts.
Her husband is a senior technical analyst who works with financial security software and travels “literally all over the world,” she said. In 2006, when their son was about to start kindergarten, they decided one of them needed to get a job in Conway, where they lived. She applied to one place — AETN — and got the job.
“I was training teachers how to use technology in the classroom,” she said. A special development portal AETN launched a few months after she started now offers free courses online for Arkansas teachers 24 hours a day. “We are the No. 1 provider of professional development in the state,” she said.
Walker said her boss at that time “discovered I liked kids. I became the unofficial kids camp director.” This year, the format has changed, but previously it was held every day for a week for students to come learn about a subject — computers, cooking, etc. “We bring in a lot of community partners,” she said. “My first year, the National Guard landed a helicopter on the [UCA] field for me.”
It’s all about making learning fun, she said.
“The reward for doing it and doing it well is doing more things,” she said. Walker said she has been promoted three times.
She became education manager in the education division, which included governmental relations, and she took on that role. As a political-science major, Walker said, she loved that. It was restructured after her former boss retired.
“We saw a gap that we didn’t have anyone in adult ed,” she said. “We want to be the leader that the state looks to as far as adult ed” and reduce the dropout rate.
In July, she took that on. She manages the internship program and special projects. AETN has seven college and university interns now from across Arkansas, including Conway and Jonesboro.
“I’m very supporting and motivating. I’m a leader, not a manager. I love to inspire people and help them see things they can’t see in themselves,” she said. “They are treated like professionals.” They don’t get paid, but Walker said they work on projects that they can include on their resume, and some of them have been hired when positions open. “We love that,” she said.
Walker presents the new Dropping Back In program to promote getting a GED. It’s a series of videos emphasizing that “no matter what reason you dropped out, you can drop back in,” she said. “This is when we’re reaching out to people who need GEDs.”
Think Tank is one of Walker’s special projects. She was considering starting it when she happened to mention it to Charlotte Green, supervisor of gifted-and-talented programs for the Conway School District. Green said it sounded like a perfect program for GT students.
“I said, ‘Let’s get a pilot going,’” Walker said. Bob Courtway Middle School in Conway was the first school to join; now all four Conway middle schools have Think Tank as part of the curriculum for sixth-grade GT students.
It’s about deeper learning and service learning, Walker said. Students think about their community and issues they care about and want to address. Last year, it was homelessness and women and children. They worked with Kami Marsh, agriculture agent for the Faulkner County Cooperative Extension Service, who showed them how to plant vegetables in garden boxes and pots to take to Bethlehem House, a transitional homeless shelter in Conway.
Walker travels some in the state to conduct programs. AETN helped a nonprofit group at an apartment complex in
Little Rock get a family book club going. She suggested to the nonprofit group’s representative that he should ask the apartment manager for an apartment to be used for people to work on their GEDs, and the manager approved.
“We’ll be able to provide wireless capabilities,” she said. “Now the GED program is mobile — you can take it on your iPad.”
Another of Walker’s responsibilities is the Arkansas Out of School Network, for which she is communications chairwoman. She teaches “best-practice academies” for any organization that provides after-school programs, such as Boys and Girls Clubs. Her goal is to show them how to “really have an electric program.”
“I’m like the idea queen,” she said.
Walker, a member of Mosaic Church in Conway, said her faith in God is a huge part of her life.
“That’s the only way I can do all the things I do,” she said. “I’m never bored. I do a ton of stuff, and I love it. They are linked together — really strengthening families and pushing them to their higher-education goals.
“That’s just my small little piece. Because AETN is a state agency, I’m a public servant. If you really care about making a difference in the communities, this is a great place to be. If you care about the people of Arkansas, this is a great place to work.”
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.