Karen Paisley, is the founding Artistic Director of Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre As Artistic Director, she established MET’s Flagship program, created the Magellan New Plays and New Artists Project and implemented MET’s Lighthouse Learning Program providing arts integration educational programming to schools in Kansas City. As a director and dramaturg, she works extensively with new and emerging writers across the nation serving as judge and panelist for the MATC New Plays Symposium 2005, as a panelist and director for the Great Plains Theatre Conference sponsored by Edward Albee. She regularly collaborates with colleges and universities through site visits and workshops. This past fall she was selected to address the National Non-profit Congress in Washington DC at their opening convocation and will speak again on the power of the Non-Profit sector this summer in Oklahoma.