Karen Higgins is a staff nurse at Boston Medical Center and a past president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association. She has been actively involved with the MNA for nearly twenty years, and has been a key player in all of its important advocacy and legislative initiatives—from safe staffing to single-payer healthcare. Karen has also served as the MNA Board’s secretary and on its Cabinet for Labor Relations as both chair and vice chair. In addition, she was the co-chair of the MNA’s Statewide Campaign for Safe Care, the chairperson of the MNA’s Nursing Shortage Task Force, and a founding member of the Task Force on Workplace Violence.

Karen is a fiercely loyal union sister and she has been a leading voice at the MNA for the need for a strong national union by and for front line nurses. Her commitment to nursing and her leadership role in the creation of National Nurses United were key factors in the MNA memberships’ endorsement of her position as one of three co-presidents of the new organization.