Karen Oelschlaeger: Integrating Politics and Social Media

Karen Oelschlaeger, Asheville-Buncombe County League of Women Voters

Staff Reports

Karen Oelschlaeger, 27, is the avatar of a new generation of women leaders.

A longtime political enthusiast with a particular passion for utilizing social media to facilitate civic engagement and social change, she has spent the past year as the volunteer Online Communications Director for the Asheville-Buncombe County League of Women Voters. Now she has been nominated to take on the League presidency for the 2012-13 year.

She joined the League and volunteered because, she says, “I just like
to know what’s going on and how it’s happening and what one can do to
affect it. I’m a fan of working with the system you have, so the better
you know that system, you know that you can operate within that system.”

She liked the League’s involvement with redistricting and the
opportunity to work on particular legislative issues, as well as its
neutral, nonpartisan approach. She had also discovered that prior
involvement with political groups was dominated by men. With the League,
she says, “You get that integration of women and politics that you do
not see every day.”

Education & Awards

Just five years
ago Karen earned her BA Magna Cum Laude (with High Honors) from
Connecticut’s Wesleyan University, where she was awarded the Walkley
Prize for Outstanding Original Research in Psychology and was tapped for
the Psi Chi National Honor Society in Psychology. She double-majored in
Psychology and Spanish Literature.

During college Oelschlaeger
was actively engaged in making the world a better place. She served
three years as a National Executive Committee Member and State &
Regional Coordinator for the Sierra Club’s student arm. She spent one
summer in Charlotte as a field manager for the Fund for Public Interest
Research, another in Missouri as a field intern for MoveOn.

Turning Passion Into Career

After
graduating, the Charlotte native wanted to return south, and in 2007
she came to Asheville, where her father grew up. For four years she ran a
dog-walking business in West Asheville, but is now pursuing her Master
of Social Work degree from the UNC-Chapel Hill (she commutes one day a
week).

In the past year Oelschlaeger has taken a paid job as a New
Media Strategist for the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC),
where she drafts and implements new-media strategy, monitors and expands
social media presence, and provides social media evaluations and
feedback to various congressional campaigns’ new media staff. She has
also worked as a Field and Outreach Coordinator for local candidates
including Lael Gray, Drew Reisinger, and Terry Van Duyn.

Her
enthusiasm for “new media” is unrestrained. Twitter “will change your
life!” said the enthusiastic, cell-phone toting, two-thumb messenger.
“Twitter is good if you are interested in local or state or national
breaking news — if a piece of legislation just passed, who voted what
way. It’s good for connecting you with people who care about what you
care about.”

Given the chance, Karen Oelschlaeger will use Twitter to help change all our lives…for the better.