Karen Pittman is an award-winning sociologist, writer, and public speaker who has made a career of developing initiatives and organizations that promote positive youth development — from the Center for Youth Development and Policy Research in 1990 to America’s Promise to the Forum for Youth Investment, which she co-founded with Merita Irby in 1998. In 2022, she stepped away from organizational management to dedicate her time to galvanizing the growing interest in using science-informed strategies to truly change the odds for all children and youth. Currently, she is a partner of Knowledge to Power Catalysts and editor-in-chief for Youth Today, a publication for the allied youth fields that she has contributed to as a columnist since 1992.
