SIM Alumni

Karen Chan

Karen is an artist with a two science degrees, and registered nurse who believes in healthier communities through art. In 2010, she founded HART Project a Canadian NGO, to further this vision with the focus on youth and women. Projects have included a skateboarding/art camp for youth and art therapy workshops for shelter-involved women.Her background includes 14 years in healthcare in diverse areas such as jail nursing, community mental health and research. Increasingly, her art has become a means to educate, advocate and create opportunities for promoting social justice. Her current artwork uses photography to tell the stories of inner city women in an effort to “change face” or perceptions.Two years ago, she volunteered in a hospital in Malawi, Africa where she outreached with the medical team into the villages and worked on a pediatric burns ward. She hopes to continue to build spaces in Kenya that allow young people to create, be healthy and live up to their potential. She can speak English, Cantonese, Mandarin, French, conversational Chichewa (South-Central African)