By Michael D. Wynne
As I have said many times before in the past 9 years of writing this column, I am continually amazed and impressed with the people who come out of Cenla. Is it something in our water that makes us achieve greatness?
Or is it simply (and unabashedly) that we have the finest and most overall interesting people in the state. To slightly paraphrase Will Rodgers, one of my communication mentors, “I never met a person I didn’t like.”
In today”s column, we have another person that I personally admire and quite frankly, feel that we all should admire. Many years ago, her family doctor told her mother when our subject was just three years old that she
wouldn’t ever amount to anything because of the sudden and tragic lost of her hands. In 2025, Karren was declared in the City of New Orleans (where she currently lives) the winner of the “(Most) Remarkable Woman” of the greater New Orleans area.
Her name is Karren Young Alexander and she was born in Alexandria, the daughter of a painter/church pianist father and a Pinecrest worker mother. The direction of her life took a tragic turn when her hands were caught and crushed in a washing machine wringer and, then severe gangrene set in and they were amputated.
Although she briefly wore a prosthesis, Karren found wearing them heavy and cumbersome and soon abandoned them. “My grandmother who taught pre-K taught me how to write,” Karren told me.
After graduating Bolton, she proceeded to Northwestern seeking a Master’s degree in accounting which she has achieved. “When I was in high school, I took one of those tests to determine what career path I should take,” Karren said. “I scored high in mathematics so I went into accounting.”
But Karren also had a desire to be a teacher, a “gift” she says, she inherited from her family. So she has always taught Sunday school and has been a life-long skilled trainer and student coach.
For thirty-six years, she has worked in the Federal government in accounting, starting at the Forestry office across from the VA hospital. Her work was of such high quality, that she has been asked for and as worked
around the country, ending up in New Orleans where she retired in 2018.
But she still works as a consultant and has 2 successful businesses of her own: “One Way Enterprises,” where she provides personal financial services, and “PAMD International,” where she is an instructional designer.
But that just wasn’ enough success for Karren, informally wanting to prove her childhood doctor wrong. In 2007, she wrote and published a now much admired book, “Invisible Hand; Overcoming Obstacle and Challenges.”
Working in the Federal government, she was frequently asked, “How do you do all that you do?” Being a voluminous writer because of the nature of her job, she decided that she wanted to share her many hard-fought
and learned life skills with others for them to achieve similar success.
“Almost every chapter of my book addresses some negative emotion and my
book tells you how to overcome them.”
Chapters include subjects like fear, bullying, how to maintain a positive attitude, worrying, anxiety and many
others. “I feel my book has been a great success with all of the positive feedback that I get.”
Some of her feedback include previously unsuccessful women who have now gotten their college degrees and are reaching for the heights.
Karren has 2 more books coming out in 2026, both containing some spirituality. Her favorite saying is, “There is no such word as can’t; you fail before you start anything if you first think you can’t do something.” Karren
