Karen Brooks Harper is a Mizzou alumna who has covered Texas politics in and out of Austin for nearly 30 years. She's also covered the cartel wars along the TX-MX border, Congress in Mexico City, 3 presidential races, and 6 hurricanes. Raised on blues in the MS Delta, she lives in Austin, Texas with her son, her dogs, her boxing gloves, and her guitar.

In that order.

Karen is not a native Texan, but her mother and son are – and she has been a reporter here over half her life - in Fort Worth, Dallas, Laredo, the DFW suburbs, Houston, Corpus Christi, and Austin.

Her career in Texas has included stints as a longtime member of the Capitol press corps, a local reporter, freelancer, editor, border correspondent, wire-service bureau chief, and producer. Her responsibilities have also included moderating panels, planning team coverage, mentoring and training, guest appearances at colleges and universities, video stand-ups, reporting for social media, live-blogging, Reddit events, and radio/TV interviews with partner stations and national outlets.

Karen's positions in five Texas cities have taken her to a large newsroom in downtown Fort Worth, a TV station in Austin, a one-person outpost a mile from the border, a suburban publication in DFW, and three bureaus across the street from the Texas Capitol.

Her leadership positions have included running a team at the local NBC affiliate, KXAN Austin News, and serving as a rotating bureau chief for Reuters. She has also been called on to be a player-coach in positions, as well as interim editor of a start-up news organization. She has planned, anchored and served as rewrite lead on myriad stories with large groups of reporters in large-news situations ranging from hurricanes to Election Day.

As a career politics writer, Karen has covered 12 regular sessions of the Texas Legislature for five news agencies under three governors and two political parties, as well as three national presidential conventions (Bush, Obama, McCain) and countless state Democratic and Republican conventions, campaigns and referendums.

She has chronicled the rise of violent youth gangs in South Texas and the churches’ attempts to save them, witnessed the seeds of the civilian border militia movement in El Paso, and the plight of Galveston homeowners who are watching their retirement dreams crumble into the Gulf.

She has also written about the wrenching decision of a small town to legalize alcohol, the seismic shift in Texas music when Alejandro Escobedo decided to (gasp!) leave Austin and move to Dallas, the impact of the Warren Jeffs polygamist compound on an isolated West Texas community, and the purchase of an abandoned downtown by an eccentric DC lobbyist.

Karen's stories have taken her to a stand-off with the killer of a Tejano star in Corpus Christi, the federal trial of Andrea Yates in Houston, a tiny village in Honduras where a family was busted for trafficking in Fort Worth, COVID vaccine clinics in Northeast Texas, the quiet, tarantula-filled highways of West Texas, buried bodies in Juarez, Spring Break madness in South Padre, the George Washington’s Birthday Celebration on the bridge in Laredo, the bat caves in Austin, and the small towns, dance halls and state parks in the Texas Hill Country.

Skills/Expertise

Strong background in Texas Capitol and political reporting, business, criminal, cultural, border, social and family issues. Skilled at daily beat reporting, writing, investigative journalism, editing and news management. Deep working knowledge of public records, parliamentary procedure, open meetings requirements and legislative processes. Particular experience leading teams, collaborating with multiple reporters and newsrooms, working solo and as part of a team in bureaus, large-event team coverage, breaking news, blogging and video, and managing employees and my own supervisors in a splintered local/corporate news environment.

Additional skills: Photography, Spanish.

Professional experience

Dallas Morning News * Austin, TX * July 2024 - Present

Senior political reporter, Austin Bureau

Responsible for daily and enterprise coverage of the state budget, sessions of the Texas Legislature, campaigns and elections, the governor, the lobby, and other powerful political figures. Regular appearances on radio and television, video stand-ups for social media, and moderator roles on live-audience panels. Leadership role in daily coverage planning.

Texas Tribune * Austin, TX * September 2020 - July 2024

Health and human services/state budget reporter

Lead reporter during the COVID-19 pandemic. Tracked budget and other legislation during the 88th Texas Legislature. Multiple public appearances on radio, podcasts, TV, and at live events, including panels at TribFest and one-on-one interviews for exclusive member events.

Austonia * Austin, TX * March 2020 - September 2020

Senior writer for news start-up, including a brief stint as an interim managing editor, focusing mostly on the emergency response and social implications of the COVID-19 pandemic in Austin.

Corpus Christi Camera * Corpus Christi, TX * February 2017-December 2019
Owner/Operating Manager/VP
Together with husband, opened a full-service, 3,000-square-foot camera store from the ground up with no investors in 2017. Store closed on Dec. 21, 2019.

Reuters America * Austin/Fort Worth, TX * May 2011-October 2016
National Breaking News Correspondent and editor (Austin)

Managed the national Reuters America file on the pre-dawn daily shift for clients’ early editions.

Deep South and Plains Bureau Chief and Correspondent. (Austin and Fort Worth)

Covered and wrote major daily and long-term stories in a dozen states for national and international clients, and oversaw two dozen stringers.

NBC KXAN Austin News * Austin, TX * Jan 2009 – Jan 2011
Digital Executive Producer
Member of the newsroom management team.

On-Air Commentator and Political Editor: Oversaw reporters’ coverage of Texas Legislature and took part in weekend talk segments about lawmakers and policy in Texas.

Dallas Morning News * Austin, TX * July 2004-Jan 2009
Capitol Bureau Staff Writer/State general assignment reporter

Fort Worth Star-Telegram * FW/Austin/Laredo/Mexico * Feb. 1998-July 2004
Mexico Border Bureau Chief (Laredo/Mexico 2001-2004)
Capital Bureau (Austin 1999-2003)

Metro/Government/State reporter (Fort Worth 1997-2001)

Corpus Christi Caller-Times * Corpus Christi, TX * 1995-1997
Police/courts reporter

Professional recognition

“Texas Ballot Secrecy.” Team investigation at Texas Tribune. 2025 National Headliner Awards, 1st Place Online Beat Reporting.
Series for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, “Diagnosis Forgotten,” on severely mentally ill children trapped outside the system: Associated Press Managing Editor’s Award, a Texas Headliner’s Award, a Vivian Castleberry Award from the Association of Women Journalists and a Texas Mental Health Association Award.
Spot news and investigation on the deaths of 18 immigrants in the back of an 18- wheeler, covered with another reporter, highlighted inaction by responders in two agencies: Houston Press Association award for spot news.
Coverage of the U.S.-Mexico border: Knight Journalism Fellowship at the Annenberg Institute at the University of Southern California.
Series on youth gangs in Corpus Christi: Katie Award, Prevention for a Safer Society Award, National Council on Crime and Delinquency.
2022 Texas Health Journalist of the Year, 1st Place, Texas Medical Association.

Education: University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism 1990-1994; St. Joseph Catholic High School, Greenville, MS.

Interests: Martial arts, photography, piano and guitar, cycling, cooking, traveling.

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