Karen Rathe is a longtime Seattle journalist and journalism educator. She currently works as a copy editor for the Puget Sound Business Journal and is editor of the Journal of the Seattle Genealogical Society. She taught full time with the University of Washington’s journalism program for nearly a decade, including as editor of the UW News Lab and a member of the university’s board of publications.
Rathe worked as a copy editor and designer for over a dozen years at the Seattle Times, including as letters editor. She interned with The Oregonian and was news editor of the Tillamook Headlight Herald. Other teaching stints have been with Seattle Pacific University, Shoreline Community College and Northwest University in Kirkland, Washington. She is a certificated substitute teacher for publications classes in Seattle Public Schools and has often judged student and professional journalism contests.
Rathe was born in Eugene, Oregon, on May 18, 1954, and grew up in Portland, the eldest and only girl of five children. She earned a bachelor’s in interior architecture and a master’s in journalism, both from the University of Oregon. She was awarded a graduate teaching fellowship there and also was selected for a 10-week fellowship at the Poynter Institute in newspaper management and entrepreneurship. She is a member of Society of Professional Journalists.
Rathe lives in Ballard, Seattle’s Scandinavian district, with her husband, Kevin Donnelly. Their son Liam is entering his second year of law school.