Welcome, new Senior Lab Tech Karen Brinton

Dr. Karen Brinton is the new Senior Laboratory Technician for the Chemistry Department in Humanities & Sciences.

Karen has been an adjunct instructor of Chemistry at Cincinnati State since 2018.

Her experience as a community college adjunct instructor began in 2005 in southern California, where she taught both chemistry and earth sciences.

A native New Yorker, Karen has lived most of her adult life in southern California. She moved to Cincinnati a few years ago to be closer to family.

Karen earned a B.A. in Chemistry from Oberlin College, an M.S. in Chemistry from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego.

Prior to becoming a teacher, Karen worked as a geochemist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, studying the reactions of amino acids in extreme environments similar to those on Mars.

Karen said, “I’m looking forward to getting the chemistry labs up and running again for in-person classes, with the extra safety challenges brought on by the pandemic.”

She added, “As someone who loves to cook and bake, I’m excited that the Chemistry Department will be offering food science-based labs to support the Culinary and Food Science bachelor’s degree at Cincinnati State.”

Karen’s hobbies are playing the cello, knitting, sewing, and baking, and she says she plans to add gardening and raising chickens to the list.

She also enjoys spending time with family and her greyhound, a rescued racer named Poppy (who posed with Karen for the photo).