Karen Short hails from Austin, Texas, where she was raised on taco trucks before taco trucks were a thing. She studied at the University of Virginia, before mastering her art direction skills at the VCU Adcenter.
She came to Droga5 by way of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco where she worked on got milk?, Haagen-Dazs, Kayak, Frito-Lay, Comcast and HP. Since coming to Droga5, Karen has created campaigns for Prudential, Newcastle Brown Ale, the Gates Foundation, Diet Coke, Chobani, Under Armour and the YMCA.

Droga5 recently launched a pro bono campaign, the Equal Payback Project - a campaign created for the National Women's Law Center that includes an off-the-wall video featuring Sarah Silverman and a crowd funding website to help close the wage gap. Karen and her creative partner, Casey Rand, are the brains behind the campaign and saw the video reach millions of views and coverage across dozens of news outlets.

Karen's work has been recognized by Cannes, the Andy Awards, the One Show, Effies, Art Director's Club, FWA, Facebook Studio Awards, and Young Guns. Some of her latest work has gone on to win notable awards, including Prudential's "Chapter Two" campaign, winning a Cannes Bronze/Integrated, and Prudential's "Challenge Lab", which earned a Cannes Titanium Lion and Cannes Silver Cyber Lion, an Andy Gold/Integrated, and a Webby award. In addition to garnering accolades for her work, Karen has been named a Cannes Young Lion and most recently named to Business Insider's Most Creative Women in Advertising.

When Karen manages to find some down time, you can find her at Prospect Park playing soccer or pretending to be a runner with her husband. They sometimes run after taco trucks.