2015 Communicator of Achievement Karena Carlson

Karena Carlson, communications manager for the city of Fargo, is North Dakota Professional Communicators’ 2015 Communicator of Achievement.

NPDC is an organization of men and women employed in all aspects of communication that works to advance the communication profession. Communicator of Achievement is the highest honor NDPC bestows. It recognizes members for their accomplishments in and outside of the communication profession.

Carlson has been an NDPC member since 2008 and serves in a number of positions, including NDPC college contest judge and member of the Marion J. Piper Scholarship selection committee. She served as southeast district director and Fargo-Moorhead Professional Communicators (FMPC) president from 2008 to 2013. She is also a member of the National Federation of Press Women, of which NDPC is an affiliate, and an NFPW communications contest judge.

She began her career as a reporter at KMOT-TV (NBC) in Minot, N.D. Carlson quickly became the 6 and 10 p.m. anchor and executive producer at the station. She then spent six years at WDAY-TV (ABC) Fargo, N.D., as the 5 p.m. weekday co-anchor and reporter.

In 2008, she became the City of Fargo communications manager. In this position, she guides media relations and is the lead public information officer during large-scale incidents, such as floods.

Carlson lives in Fargo with her husband and three children.

She will be NDPC’s nominee for the Communicator of Achievement award at the National Federation of Press Women conference Sept. 10-12 in Anchorage, Alaska.