Karen Pauls has been CBC Radio's National Reporter for Manitoba since 2004. She is a native Manitoban who has worked at the Portage Daily Graphic, Winnipeg Sun, and WTN - researching and producing the award-winning show, Open for Discussion.

Karen has worked in Toronto for CBC Radio's show This Morning, the national syndication service, Cross Country Check Up, the Toronto newsroom, and Quirks & Quarks, where she produced a Question Show which won a New York Festivals gold medal. She has also worked in Halifax, covering everything from the G-7 riots (where she got caught in the tear gas), to the dozens of diverted airplanes after the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

One of her most gratifying stories was about Nova Scotia firefighters trying to get compensation for certain work-related cancer. Her series won an Atlantic Journalism Award, a media recognition award from the Halifax Professional Firefighters union, and the 2004 International Radio award from the International Association of Firefighters. Her Investigative Unit series on Modern Human Slavery was a finalist in the Canadian Association of Journalists' awards for 2006. She was also part of the team that produced the series "So You Think You're Canadian," which resulted in changes to Canada's Immigration Act and a finalist designation in the CAJ's 2007 awards. In 2007, Karen was the recipient of the CAJ's Dateline Hong Kong Fellowship. She did stories on the avian flu - a decade after the first human cases were diagnosed.

Karen has a B.A. (with distinction) in Comparative Religion from Dalhousie University, and a diploma in Creative Communications from Red River College. She has also studied at the University of Winnipeg and Capernwray Bible School in England. One of her most challenging assignments is her position of "Mother."

You can reach Karen with story ideas at Karen.pauls@cbc.ca