Karen Olson
Karen Olson is an American philanthropist who is the founder, and president emeritus of Family Promise, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to helping homeless and low-income families. Early life Olson was born in Darien, Connecticut. She attended public school in Darien and graduated from Lasell College in Auburndale, Massachusetts, where she studied Business Administration. Marketing career After college, Olson spent seven years in marketing, the last three at Warner-Lambert in Morris Plains, New Jersey. She developed promotional campaigns for consumer products such as Schick razors, Listermint mouthwash, and Lubriderm lotion. Engaging the homeless Rushing by Grand Central Station in Manhattan to a business meeting in 1982, Olson noticed a homeless woman she'd passed before. This time, she decided impulsively to buy a sandwich for the woman. When she gave it to her, the woman began a conversation. According to Olsen, "I learned a little bit about her life, and a barrier was sort of broken,” she said. ”Up until that point, I had thought you just don’t go near homeless people." Olson and her two young sons began frequent trips to New York to hand out sandwiches to the homeless. “For a couple of years,” Olson said, “every other Sunday,