Karen Zauder Brass ’82

“Share your light. In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.” ~ Albert Schweitzer

Biography

As a Second-Generation Holocaust Survivor, Karen is dedicated to educating children and adults about taking responsibility for their actions, and encouraging them to rise up and take action in the face of human cruelty. Karen has taken her father’s inspirational story (a young Polish boy who spent time in the Krakow Ghetto, Sachsenhausen and Flossenburg concentration camps, Plaszow and Auschwitz death camps prior to a number to death marches to becoming the first cornetist, second trumpeter and the first personnel manager of The Cleveland Orchestra) to create Standupsters®, an international anti-bullying and Holocaust education program. Karen coined the term, defining it as “any human being who chooses to take a stand and use their sense of personal responsibility, and moral leadership, to take action to stop bullying and discrimination in today’s, school work and community environments.” To complement her school and community presentations (including CHHS), Karen created the website www.standupsters.com and a company, Can I Count on You, LLC, to make the material she teaches more accessible to educators, parents and students alike. Karen presents nationally and internationally and is the author of I am a Standupster and Trauma Filters Through. In her spare time, Karen, a devoted wife and mother of two children with special needs, is a senior sales director with May Kay Cosmetics who has earned 17 career cars (pink Cadillacs!) over 29 years with the company.

Education

BEd, Bowling Green State University

Current Occupation

Educator, Entrepreneur, Small Business Owner, Keynote Speaker, Author

Achievements

• Invited to speak in both Warsaw, Poland and in Berlin, Germany to the Educational Consulate

• Involved in getting the Holocaust and Genocide Bill passed into Colorado Law, HB20-1336

• Published 3rd book, How to Create Peace: Teaching Children How to Navigate Their Personal Choices, Build Their Character and Social Morality

• Finalist, two years consecutively, for The Unsung Heroine Award in Jefferson County International Women’s Day for work with education through her Standupsters programs.

• Award of Distinction from both the Colorado Cross Disability Coalition and The Colorado Autism Society for her work in advocacy

• Invited Holocaust speaker to the military brass at Cheyenne Mountain’s Norad facility, to the Peterson Air Force Base military personnel, and to Ft. Carson in Colorado Springs

It is both an honor and a dream to be recognized and inducted into the CHHS Hall of Fame. I always hoped to make something of my dream, which was to honor my heritage while making a positive difference in the world. I found my voice at CHHS, and it is wonderful to be able to share that my roots are from here, in Black and Gold country.”