Karen LeBlanc is an award-winning travel journalist, television host, and producer whose honors include a Lowell Thomas Gold Award for Travel Journalism, three Telly Awards, and four North American Travel Journalists Association awards.
She writes and hosts LA64, a Louisiana travel series airing on PBS stations statewide and reaching 1,285,000 viewers across six affiliates. She is also the creator, host, producer, and writer of The Design Tourist, an international travel series streaming on Amazon Prime, Tubi, Reveel, Vacation Escapes, and six additional platforms. The Design Tourist is in production to air nationwide on public television stations through a national distribution agreement with Executive Program Services. In both series, Karen takes viewers beyond the guidebooks to explore the culture, craft, cuisine, and creativity that define the world's most fascinating destinations. Earlier in her television career, she spent a decade as a Guest Host on HSN and served as anchor and co-producer of Louisiana: The State We're In on PBS.

In print and online, Karen is a columnist for International Travel News and the Travel and Design Editor of LaPalme, a national celebrity news and lifestyle magazine, where she brings her design and culture lens to authentic international travel experiences. She also contributes to Travel + Leisure and TravelWorld International. She publishes TheDesignTourist.com, a travel and lifestyle site syndicated on MSN.com and read by millions worldwide, and DiscoverLouisianaTravel.com, an online guide to the people and places of her home state, also syndicated on MSN.com.

A sought-after speaker and media expert on travel and tourism, Karen brings a working journalist's perspective from destinations across the globe and from the back roads of her home state of Louisiana. Her talks center on destination storytelling: how culture keepers, artisans, and small towns carry the identity of a place, and how destinations can put that story in front of the travelers most likely to answer it. She has appeared as an event keynote speaker and guest on podcasts, radio shows and TV programs.

Karen holds an M.A. in Mass Communications from Northeast Louisiana University and a B.A. in Communications from Louisiana State University. Based in Orlando, Florida, she is a member of the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW), the North American Travel Journalists Association (NATJA), and the International Food, Wine & Travel Writers Association (IFWTWA).