By Bella Portaro Kueber

It seems that social media is defining businesses and future careers. What led this social media guru to become an assistant professor in strategic communications at the University of Louisville?

Karen Freberg started social media accounts and building a blog when she was attending the University of Florida, where she competed in track and field. A professor told her that the writing on her blog was public relations for the athletics she was involved in and that became a pivotal moment within Karen’s career that set the tone for her future.

Karen has quite a few degrees, starting with Southern Methodist University which she left to attend the University of Florida to receive her bachelor of science for public relations. Afterwards, she continued with her education and received her master of arts, strategic public relations. And, here’s one more: Karen received her Ph.D in communications from the University of Tennessee, concentrating in public relations.

Karen realized she had a knack for social media when she was a student at the University of Florida.
Photos by Melissa Donald


Karen stays busy with her social media classes at UofL, and the fuel for it all comes from her passion for educating, mentoring, and teaching the future professionals in her industry with strategic communications, social media planning, and crisis communications. Karen says she “loves the connectivity it gives her to be the connector for the students that desire introductions with other social media connections I have or with students from my classes that stay in contact with me through LinkedIn or Twitter.”

What’s her favorite social media application? Karen told Today’s Woman that she loves Snapchat because of the filters, but her favorite is Twitter. (Follow her at @kfreberg to get insight into the latest developments.)