Karen Maria Alston
Bio
Participation1
Karen Maria Alston is an award-winning strategist and founder with 20+ years of experience in communications, brand, and systems level storytelling across public and private sectors. She is currently focused on AI governance and safety, with a particular interest in field-building, responsible deployment, and public-facing education. She lives in Washington, DC and is actively engaging with the EA community.
How others can help me
I’d appreciate conversations with people thinking seriously about AI governance, safety, and how high impact work reaches broader audiences. I’m also open to guidance on where communications expertise is most useful in the AI safety ecosystem.
How I can help others
I’m most useful at the intersection of ideas and audiences. I can help teams think through messaging, distribution, and narrative strategy where those choices affect adoption, trust, or field-building, especially for AI governance and safety work.
Comments5
Thanks for sharing this update, your theory of change, and being transparent on where Amplify is now and where you are headed. I am glad to see someone taking marketing seriously within the EA Safety ecosystem. Too often, strong ideas stall not because they lack the ideas but they lack the reach. Wishing you momentum as you scale and navigate the next phase.
Karen Maria
A year ago, I would have never considered a role in AI Safety. I too fell down the rabbit hole by reading AI 2027, taking courses and now am completely focused on finding a role in the AI Safety community. I am a women, experienced professional in my 50s and my life has changed over the past 3 months. This essay is great advice, to be in this industry you need context, a deep understanding of the landscape and nuance. I am happy to be a student and to learn and am realizing it may take me 6 - 12 months to find a job. Thank you for this roadmap and guidance.
Hello everyone
I’m Karen Maria and I am based in Washington, DC in the USA. I was introduced to effective altruism through my 80,000 Hours coach, and I’m still orienting myself within the community.
I’ll be honest, the EA Forum can feel overwhelming and intimidating at times. There’s a level of rigor here that I deeply respect, and I’m currently more of a reader and lurker but I do plan to post and be a contributor. I’m learning how to sit with ideas, follow arguments carefully, and build understanding before I form strong views.
I’m making a late career pivot into AI safety and governance. I come from a background in marketing, communications, stakeholder engagement and brand strategy. Over the past year my curiosity about AI tools turned into deeper concern about societal impact, power concentration, persuasion, and who is most vulnerable as these systems advance. I am currently working on my theory of change.
Most of my downtime now is spent studying. I’m reading research papers, policy analysis, and watching lots of podcasts, often slowly and repeatedly, to build real comprehension rather than surface familiarity. This transition is intentional and, at times, uncomfortable, but it’s necessary.
I’d love recommendations from this community:
I’m here because I value the norms this community upholds: intellectual honesty, seriousness about impact, and humility in the face of uncertainty. I’m grateful to learn from those further along the path and to be part of the conversation as I continue to grow into this work.
Karen Maria