Karen Bartko

Online Journalist

Karen has worked at Global Edmonton since 2006, and has been an online journalist covering stories across Alberta for more than 10 years.

She is an award-winning journalist, having won two RTDNA Prairie Regional Awards with Global Edmonton’s online team for its coverage of the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire.

Karen is grateful for the privilege of covering stories in the community she was raised in, at the TV station she grew up watching each day.

She got her start as a studio assistant at Global while still in college and became an ENG video editor for four years. Karen then moved to the editorial team as the overnight writer for Global News Morning Edmonton. Karen joined the online team in 2014. She lives for breaking news and enjoys the fast pace of the digital world.

Karen knows the Edmonton region well and that knowledge informs her coverage of local news. She grew up in Parkland County, attended high school in Devon and graduated from the Radio and Television Arts program at NAIT in 2008.

Outside of work, Karen enjoys cooking, reading, killing plants gardening, travelling and taking in Edmonton’s numerous summer festivals. She’s also learning to love/hate golf.

Karen is a pop culture geek who indulges in a long list of TV shows and can frequently be found scouring Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Reddit. She would never say no to a good glass of wine.