Karen Williams graduated summa cum laude from Cleveland State University with a personally-designed major in “Humor and Healing.” She earned a Master of Education degree from CSU’s Adult Learning & Development program. Karen Williams, M.Ed, taught the nation’s only four-credit Senior Seminar in Stand-Up Comedy in the Dramatic Arts department of Cleveland State University, and directed inaugural comedy classes at Second City in Cleveland. Dr. Karen Williams graduated with a PhD in social gerontology from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

Karen Williams is the Founder and CEO of the International Institute of Humor and Healing Arts aka HaHA Institute, former owner of The Healing Place Education Center, and recently received 501(c)3 nonprofit status for the HaHA Institute – Humor Education Center. Contact Karen as a keynote speaker in the areas of diversity, humor and healing and JOYFUL AGING!

Karen Williams is a featured comic performer with Olivia Travel cruises and resorts since 1990. Curve Magazine calls Karen Williams “…a laugh riot.” The Sydney Morning Herald proclaims that Karen Williams is “ferociously funny, with perfect pace, timing, and structure.”

Karen was a ghostwriter for Columbia Pictures and television host and writer for IN THE LIFE. Her humor writings appear in numerous anthologies including JOKE STEW; REVOLUTIONARY LAUGHTER; OUT IN ALL DIRECTIONS; and OUT, LOUD & LAUGHING. Karen is currently working on a lifestyle book entitled LIVING THE LAUGHTER LIFESTYLE to be published in 2025!

Karen Williams is also the creator and facilitator of the Humor-at-Large Workshop Series; founder of the National Women’s Comedy Conference; past president of the Association of Women’s Music and Culture; and former board member of AIDS, Medicine and Miracles, Love Makes A Family, and the National Black Justice Coalition.  Karen served as a certified provider of communication skills and diversity courses for the California Board of State and Community Corrections, providing diversity training for police, probation, correctional, and juvenile justice officers throughout the State of California.

Karen is known for her quick repartee, insightful commentary, audience rapport, and sheer likeability! She is a comic craft master, a gifted actor, a multitalented writer, and an inspirational lecturer whose HaHA Institute attracts clients from the public and private sectors. Armed with her “healing with humor” philosophy, Karen is a modern day alchemist whose audiences revel in her cathartic laughter and whose peers consider her a comic’s comic!

Karen Williams continues to perform comedy worldwide, narrate shorts and films, and promote joyful aging through talks and seminars while teaching acting and stand-up comedy at HaHA Institute.