Karen L. Pritzker (born 1958) is an American documentary film producer, investor, and philanthropist. She is a member of the Pritzker family, the granddaughter of A.N. Pritzker and daughter of Robert Pritzker.Forbes: The World's Billionaires - Karen Pritzker September 2020
Early life and education Pritzker was born in Oberlin, Ohio, the daughter of Audrey (née Gilbert) and Robert Pritzker. She has two full siblings: Jennifer N. Pritzker (b. 1950), a retired Lt Colonel in the Illinois State National Guard and founder of the Pritzker Military Library,Pritzker Military Library website: "Colonel (IL) J. N. Pritzker, IL ARNG (Retired)" retrieved December 21, 2012 and Linda Pritzker (b. 1953), an American lama in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Her parents divorced in 1979. In 1980, her father married Irene Dryburgh; their children are Matthew Pritzker and Liesel Pritzker Simmons. The following year, her mother married Albert B. Ratner, co-chairman of Cleveland-based real estate developer Forest City Enterprises.Yale University: "Slow readers, creative thinkers: gift will spur dyslexia studies - New center will explore links between reading problems, creativity" retrieved 21 December 2012Encyclopedia of Cleveland History: "Biography of the Ratner Family" retrieved 21 December 2012
Pritzker graduated with a B.A. from Northwestern University.
Career Pritzker was an editor at the magazine Working Mother before the family sold it in 1986 and has written for various publications including Success, Seventeen, Kirkus Reviews, and Newsday.The Big Picture documentary website: The Team - Karen Pritzker, Executive Producer retrieved July 24, 2013 Pritzker operates a venture fund, LaunchCapital LLCLaunch Capital website: "About US" retrieved July 24, 2013 with a core focus in the technology, consumer and medical businesses.Launch Capital website: Our Philosophy retrieved July 24, 2013
In 2012, Pritzker co-founded KPJR Films with James Redford. She has since executive-produced three documentary film features: The Big Picture: Rethinking Dyslexia, Paper Tigers, and Resilience: The Biology of Stress and The Science of Hope.
Pritzker, alongside her husband, Michael Vlock, and Elon Boms, founded LaunchCapital in 2008, a seed-stage investment firm.
Filmography Year TitleRole Notes 2012 The Big Picture: Rethinking Dyslexia Executive Producer Sundance Film selection in 2012 and winner of a 2013 Parent’s Choice Award 2015 Paper Tigers Executive Producer Seattle International Film Festival selection in 2015 2016 Resilience Executive Producer Shown at the Sundance Film Festival in 2016
Philanthropy Pritzker is president and director of The Seedlings Foundation, founded in 2002, which has given millions of dollars in grants to catalyze advancements in medical research, social services, job retraining, affordable housing, and online news sites dedicated to local, factual, ad-free reporting. Pritzker and her husband donated $20 million to the Yale University School of Medicine. (including $3 million to endow a professorship);Medicine@Yale Bulletin: "Giving back - Top-notch surgery at Yale inspires a major gift to the School of Medicine" $5 million to Teach for America; $1.5 million to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, in honor of her father who had Parkinson's disease. In 2007, Pritzker donated $1 million to build a new visitor center at the Treblinka concentration camp.Jewish Weekly: "Foundation pledges money to Treblinka" November 30, 2007. Pritzer funded a new website named Truth in Advertising (TinA), tina.org, that provides information about incidents of false advertising. April 3, 2013 She is on the board of directors of Grameen America, a nonprofit that offers low-cost microloans to women below the poverty line, as well as Grameen PrimaCare, which provides affordable health care for immigrant women.
Pritzker co-founded The My Hero Project with Rita Stern Milch and Jeanne Meyers in 1995. The purpose of the effort is to "celebrate the best of humanity and empowers young people to realize their own potential to effect positive change in the world".
Personal life Pritzker was married to Daniel Mark Schwartz, with whom she has two daughters. She then married to Michael Vlock, with whom she has two more children. Her husband died in September 2017. She lives in Branford, Connecticut.
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