Karen O'Brien

Karen O'Brien is a Morristown resident who grew up in Toms River. Irish-American, her dad was a longshoreman and her mom was a nurse. A Rutgers undergrad with an MBA from Rutgers Business School, she worked in pharma marketing for ten years before pivoting to journalism. She covers New Jersey's economy — pharma, healthcare, logistics, the industries that actually employ people. She believes economic journalism should explain what's happening to workers, not just stock prices.