Karen Winkel has been building communities all her life and making a difference in the lives of the people she touches. She was born in Flagstaff, Arizona, where her parents worked on the Navajo reservation. The family then moved to California, where her father was a forest ranger and her mother was a teacher in Fresno.

Even as a child, Winkel was interested in community. She tells of observing life from her playpen in the front yard and interacting with the people in her neighborhood who stopped by to visit her. When she graduated from college, she worked in higher education with international students, which gave her many opportunities to learn more about the importance of community.