Karen Anastasia Prescod

Full-Length Biography

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Karen Anastasia Prescod is a Wisdom Warrior Catalyst, international speaker, #1 international best-selling contributing author, entrepreneur, and award-winning leader whose work centers on the human side of leadership—the part that asks us to see beyond performance, position, and assumptions to recognize the person in front of us.

Born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago, Karen moved to the United States at age 20 and built her life by learning how to begin again. Her journey took her through New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Texas, Arizona, Georgia, and Florida and across industries that included restaurants, retail, mortgage lending, health insurance, entrepreneurship, nonprofit leadership, and community development.

Karen entered the workforce from the ground up. At McDonald’s, she advanced from crew member to management. She later led high-volume retail operations, including turning around an underperforming Gap location within months. During 17 years with major corporations, she managed multimillion-dollar accounts and led teams through demanding periods of growth and change.

Those early experiences shaped her understanding that leadership is not simply about authority or results. It is about people, responsibility, communication, accountability, and the ability to recognize what others may be carrying beneath the surface.

Karen went on to build a career in mortgage lending and health insurance and founded Prescod Life and Health. She has worked for herself for over 20 years—building businesses, finding clients, creating opportunities, and carrying the responsibility of generating results without the certainty of a corporate paycheck. Her professional path required her to adapt repeatedly to new industries, new communities, and new levels of responsibility while learning how to lead people through change.

In 2014, Karen joined the Greater Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce and became one of its most active and visible community leaders. She served as co-chair of the Chamber’s Gay and Lesbian Business Exchange Council in 2015 and became its chair in 2016—the first woman and only Black person to hold that position. That same year, she joined the Chamber’s Board of Directors and later served on its Executive Committee, Government Affairs Committee, and Nominating Committee.

In 2017, Karen was selected to rebuild the Chamber’s Women’s Council from the ground up. She assembled its board, facilitated a strategic planning workshop, and established the structure and direction that launched the council’s next chapter. She chaired the Women’s Council in 2017 and 2018.

In January 2023, Karen became chair of the Chamber’s Nonprofit Council. In February, she spearheaded its transition into the Social Impact Council and co-led it with her wife, Tracey Taylor Prescod. Under their leadership, participation grew from approximately 15 to 20 attendees to well over 100 in less than three months.

Karen’s leadership extended throughout the community. In 2020, she was selected as an inaugural member of the Broward Sheriff’s Office Social Justice Task Force, formed to strengthen communication and trust between law enforcement and the community. She chaired the task force’s Homelessness Committee and received formal recognition from the Broward Sheriff’s Office for her service. Karen has also served as co-vice chair of Nova Southeastern University’s Master of Public Administration Nonprofit Advisory Board.

She created “Excuse Me, That’s My Seat,” a five-year women’s initiative and conference designed to make room for women’s voices, leadership, and self-expression.

In 2017, Karen launched The Bowtie Gurl, LLC, a fashion and empowerment brand whose motto is: Be Courageous. Be Confident. Be You. She also founded Bowtie Kids, a DBA of Prescod Kids, Inc., a nonprofit created to inspire courage, confidence, and self-expression in children living with chronic pain while supporting the families who walk alongside them.

Karen’s connection to chronic pain is deeply personal. Her own experience changed her independence and the way she moved through the world. At times, there were visible signs that something was wrong. At other times, she could be standing before a room—leading, working, or speaking—with nothing on the outside revealing what she was carrying. The pain was no less real because it could not be seen.

Years later, Karen came to understand unseen experience in another form. On December 3, 2023, Tracey transitioned suddenly. The loss changed the shape of Karen’s life and deepened her understanding of grief—not only grief connected to death, but the many forms of loss and change people carry into workplaces, families, and communities without others knowing.

Following Tracey’s transition, Karen knew one thing: she had to keep moving. She sold almost everything, released the life she had known, and began traveling alone. Across 24 countries, 22 months, and five continents, her journey has included Egypt, Greece, Bali, Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, India, Kenya, and other destinations. Along the way, she has walked through fear, solitude, grief, spiritual practice, and the ongoing process of discovering what remains when familiar identities and structures fall away. Through it all, one truth has become even clearer: people need to know they matter.

Today, Karen brings together the leader she has been, the life she has lived, and the wisdom she continues to uncover. Her signature keynote, “Remember to See Them,” challenges leaders to look beyond assumptions without lowering standards. At the heart of her work is a practical leadership principle: Hold the standard. See the person. Get the results.

Through candid stories and practical insight, Karen invites audiences to examine how they lead, how they interpret performance, and how their assumptions affect the people they lead. Her framework begins with three essential actions: See yourself. See the performance. See the person.

Karen’s work does not ask leaders to choose between humanity and accountability. It shows them how to hold both. She speaks about intentional communication, leading alongside grief, navigating the human realities behind workplace performance, and what happens when a promotion changes the relationships around us.

Honors and Recognition

Karen’s leadership, service, and community impact have been recognized through the following honors:

Karen has appeared on NBC 6’s “In the Mix” and has been featured through SiriusXM, iHeartRadio, and other media platforms. She is the #1 international best-selling contributing author of “Betrayed and Back: Pain to Purpose” in the compilation Unstoppable.

Karen Anastasia Prescod is the founder of Wisdom Warrior Leadership. Whether she is speaking from a stage, facilitating a room, or working closely with a leader, her message remains clear:

You do not need to know someone’s entire story to remember that there is one.

See yourself. See the performance. See the person.

Remember to see them—because people need to know they matter.

© 2026 Karen Anastasia Prescod and Wisdom Warrior Leadership. All rights reserved. This biography may be reproduced in its approved form solely for authorized media, speaking engagements, event promotion, introductions, and award nominations. No editing, adaptation, commercial reuse, or artificial intelligence training is permitted without prior written permission.