Karen Palcho is an artist, traveler, teacher and owner of Karen's Botanicals (Natural Skin and Body Care Products) and Palcho's Pottery. Like her art, Karen's businesses are rooted in a fascination with the alchemy of transforming earth-based, raw materials into useful, beautiful things.

An art teacher for twenty-six years, Karen has taught in public and private schools, museums and art centers. She works periodically as an adjunct professor of Art Education at Kutztown University and University of the Arts. She serves as an Examiner for the International Baccalaureate Organization and as a consultant for The Goggleworks Center for the Arts. She has studied and taught art in Pennsylvania, Alaska, Luxembourg, The Ivory Coast, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mexico, Slovakia and Israel. She earned a B.S. in Art Education from the Pennsylvania State University in 1982, and an M.Ed. from Kutztown University in 1990. She and her husband, Terry Griffith, live in Berks County, Pennsylvania.