Karen Hinkle, Boehringer Ingelheim, USA

Dr. Karen Hinkle has been a medical writer with the Lay Language & New Media team at Boehringer Ingelheim for 2.5 years. Previously, she was a biology professor, researcher, and administrator at Norwich University, a comprehensive liberal arts academic institution in Vermont, USA. It was as a biology professorship where Karen’s passion for deconstructing technical information to plain language was born. At Boehringer, Karen continues this work through developing regulatory plain language documents for clinical trials, including lay summaries, informed consent forms, paediatric assent forms, lay protocol synopses, brief summaries, and others. She also oversees the development of the company-wide plain language glossary. Karen is an active member of AMWA and presented information about the glossary at the national conference in October, 2024, in New Orleans, LA, USA.