EPCHS Alum In The Spotlight: Karen Goraleski, Class Of 1971

EVERGREEN PARK, IL — When Karen Goraleski - known then as Karen Gorell - attended Evergreen Park Community High School in the late 1960s and early 1970s, she would never have envisioned the career path in health research that awaited her.

“All I knew then was that I liked things related to health,” said Goraleski, a member of the EPCHS Class of 1971. “However, I had no ability then to really see it. Clarity would develop as I was exposed to a wider world and in time gaining some maturity and confidence.”

It wasn’t until seven years after Goraleski’s EPCHS graduation when she began her college career at Moraine Valley Community College. From there, she continued locally at Saint Xavier University and gained an interest in psychology, which, she said, was “very trendy at the time.”

Goraleski then received a master’s in social work from the Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois, thinking she would become a therapist.

She didn’t.

“My first professional job out of graduate school (at the American Medical Association) exposed me to ‘health policy’ and I was hooked,” Goraleski said. “This morphed into a focus on communications, advocacy and lobbying on Capitol Hill for more research dollars.”

Goraleski has gotten to know some of the nation’s leading scientists and health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health and the Army’s health research labs over her decades-long career in health research.

“These include the discoverers of the Ebola virus, the persons who led the eradication of smallpox, key figures working on COVID, and many researchers who devote their lives to finding answers to diseases that we will never fear because we have clean water, healthcare, and education,” she said.

During her 13-year run as the CEO of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, she’s also pushed for a strong US investment in tropical medicine research in testimony before a congressional committee.

Having recently retired from the role, Goraleski continues to participate in panel discussions on the topic.

“I’m at a point in my life where I continue to have much to offer but I don’t want to do it at the fast pace of the last 30 years,” she said. “Now I can pick what I want to do and moderating a panel here in Washington, DC recently on the intersection of US and global health research and advocacy was a fun opportunity.”

She also recently started a 6-month executive consulting project with an international society of clinicians and has aspirations to serve on a board focusing on global health issues or one that is working to advance the careers of women in global health.

Advice for Current EPCHS Students

Don’t be afraid to be yourself. Be kind to yourself, you’ll figure it out. You think everyone else has it all figured out. Here’s the big secret: they don’t either.