Founder, 

 Preschool to Prison

Karen Baptiste, known as Dr. K, is a West Indian American whose parents migrated to the United States from Grenada and settled in the Bronx. She is deeply passionate about juvenile justice reform, leadership development, and female empowerment. 

Dr. K is a visionary who can make magic and transform any space she’s in. Unabashed and resolute in her stance against injustice of any kind, she is a staunch advocate for equitable resources in the BIPOC community and special needs community. Dr. K leads with compassionate courage and has bridged her love of supporting individuals impacted by the criminal justice system and education reform through storytelling in film and media. Growing up in the Bronx and then becoming a special education teacher in the Bronx, seeing kids drop out of school was the norm. Seeing her peers end up in prison was also a norm. Dr. K vowed to rewrite the narrative for kids in the Bronx and all other marginalized communities where resources are often deficient and dropout rates are high. She remains fervent in her beliefs and has served on the Legislative Committee for ASCD where she advocated to Congress, proposed, and developed national educational policy points to address systemic barriers faced by children and teachers. 

Dr. K has always had the dream to be an investigative journalist. Although she became a special teacher and has even shown her acting chops in some independent films, she never let her dream go of being an investigative journalist. In 2020, Dr. K founded Preschool to Prison, LLC, and is serving as CEO. She is also the film Director of her new documentary, Preschool to Prison. The focus of the documentary and her organization is to bring awareness to policies and practices that perpetuate systemic racist structures in schools across the United States. She is a staunch advocate for policy changes to dismantle the preschool to prison pipeline and rebuild the American school system with equity for children of color and children with special needs at the forefront. In this position, Dr. K has been successful in collaborating with school districts, companies in the corporate sector and non-profit organizations to implement antiracist trainings, build a process to ensure equitable practices are consistent, create employment opportunities for young adults above the poverty wage level, reshape recruitment and talent strategy, and drive program scalability. 

Make no mistake, Dr. K’s life is filled with adventure. She’s traveled to 34 countries and supported educators across 35 states and 6 continents. If she’s not ziplining upside down through the rainforest, you can find her enjoying quality time with her family and friends. She loves being an aunty (Or a munty, as she says. That’s the combination of aunty + mommy = munty). She enjoys brunching, going to carnival, and remaining grounded in her Caribbean culture. 

Dr. K holds a Doctorate in Leadership & Organizational Management from St. Thomas University. She also holds an Advanced Master’s in Leadership from Bank Street College, Master of Science in Urban Education from Mercy College, Bachelor of Arts in Sociology & Psychology from Purchase College, and an Associates in Journalism from Morrisville College of Agriculture & Technology. In addition, she has a School District Leader--Lifetime Professional Certification, a Students with Disabilities--Lifetime Professional Certification, a Childhood Education--Lifetime Professional Certification and a DEI certification from Cornell.