• I am a faculty lecturer in the graduate program at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing communications at Northwestern University, where I also lead the graduate program Social Justice & Investigative specialization.

• I've organized three trips for Medill journalism graduate students to Puerto Rico, to focus on issues including environmental justice, drugs and the island's colonial status. I also co-led a student trip to Cuba. 

• Since 2013 I’ve been co-director of the Social Justice News Nexus at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, working with professional reporters and graduate students who are members of our Fellowship, doing investigative and immersive stories on topics including drug policy and treatment, mental health and criminal justice, housing and environmental justice.

Kari with youth reporters outside the State Line coal plant in Northwest Indiana.

• From 2013-2014, I was the research associate with Northwestern University's Medill Watchdog Project, working with student interns and director Rick Tulsky to produce in-depth investigative stories with media partners including a WGN TV series on county judges and The Chicago Tribune investigation of youth residential treatment centers.

• From 2006 to 2011, I was an adjunct journalism instructor at Columbia College Chicago, teaching classes including Intro to Mass Media, Community News, Reporting and Writing II and Grammar for Journalists. Community News and Reporting and Writing II were lab and field work classes; Intro and Grammar were seminar classes.

• I taught a journalism course at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011.

• Since 2000 I've been a youth instructor for the non-profit organization We the People Media, working with youth in public housing and other marginalized or low-income neighborhoods, training the youth in the basics of journalism and media literacy and helping them write stories about the issues affecting their lives.

• I led an environmental justice youth journalism program through Michigan State University and We the People Media from 2011-2013, taking youth reporters to do in-depth field reporting on issues including Chicago coal plants; heavy industry in Northwest Indiana; frac sand mining near Starved Rock State Park; and the battle against Asian carp.

• I've led workshops and trainings on media and community bus tours for Community Media Workshop and other groups.