A lifelong teacher, mentor, and volunteer, Karen Floyd’s journey reflects the Jesuit value of cura personalis—care for the whole person.
 
One of the cornerstones of Jesuit education is cura personalis, or “care for the whole person.” It’s a philosophy that forms the foundation of Gonzaga Prep—guiding how students are taught, cared for, and encouraged to grow as individuals. Few embody that ideal more fully than Karen Floyd `80, whose life as an educator and volunteer continues to model compassion and purpose.

Roots in Spokane and at Prep

When Karen Floyd reflects on her roots, she doesn’t hesitate: “Our family has deep roots in the Spokane area.” A St. Francis Xavier kid who arrived at Gonzaga Prep in 1976, Karen quickly embedded herself in school life. Track, choir, drama, Ancilla, NHS, and student government filled her schedule, giving her connections across all four grade levels. She laughs, remembering why most of her foreign-language classmates were younger than she was—she waited until junior year to take a language, and suddenly found herself immersed in a room full of underclassmen.

Her Prep experience, she says, was overwhelmingly positive. She remembers many teachers fondly—Sister Mary Lynn Ritchie, Teresa Caron, Sister Janet Gorman, Father Doyle, Mark Arnold—but the most influential was her 10th-grade world history teacher, Ms. Andrea Gryziec. “She was a fabulous teacher,” Karen says. “Her first semester final covered everything from day one to day ninety.” The required studying, the extra-credit book reports, and Ms. Gryziec’s photos from her extensive travels opened Karen’s eyes to history as a living force. Seeds were planted that would bloom much later in her teaching career.

Born to be an Educator
After graduating in 1980, Karen began college at the University of Portland, eventually graduating from Western Washington University, with graduate studies at EWU and Gonzaga. She isn’t exactly sure when she decided she would teach—“maybe sophomore or junior year of college”—but once she started student teaching at Rogers High School, she knew she had chosen the right path. Rogers was intentionally different from her own high school experience. “If I can successfully teach at Rogers,” she thought, “I can teach anywhere.” It was the challenge she wanted. Karen’s first full-time job was at Moses Lake High School. She describes those three years honestly: “I lasted three years… I was lonely. I missed being around people who truly knew me.”

A twist of fate landed her at Central Valley High School in 1991, hired late in the summer when another teacher backed out. “I think it was one of those right time, right place situations,” she says. And it became home for three decades.

During those years, she became the kind of English teacher students remember forever—demanding, encouraging, deeply caring. It was also during this era that her long friendship with classmates and fellow Prep community members deepened. And along the way, she also became an avid sports photographer, capturing thousands of moments from the sidelines.

A Heart for Holocaust Education

Karen’s academic passion has always been Holocaust studies—something she traces back to 7th grade. At Prep, Man’s Search for Meaning left a mark. At CV, she taught Night to sophomores and later helped teach, and ultimately lead, the school’s semester-long Holocaust course.

A 2014 educator trip to Poland with the Holocaust Center for Humanity in Seattle strengthened her resolve. “Since that trip, I’ve made Holocaust education a priority.” She travelled to Poland multiple times and to Jerusalem where she has met everyday people who became heroes in one way or another during that tragically inhumane time in world history.

In teaching the holocaust course, there were two things she emphasized to her students:
Understand the early, predictable steps that lead toward genocide.

Silence in the face of prejudice, even bullying, allows harm to grow. Speaking up matters.

These, she believes, are not history lessons but human lessons.

After retiring from CV, Karen began substituting at Gonzaga Prep. Returning as a former student felt meaningful. “There is something special about Prep that is missing from its public counterparts,” she says. “It’s not just the religious aspect; there is more of a family connection.”

And she noticed something else: kindness. “Students often said, ‘Thank you’ as they left the classroom. The first time I heard that, I nearly fell over.”

Caring for the Most Fragile

Karen’s newest chapter may be the one that reveals her heart most clearly. She volunteers at Sacred Heart Medical Center, holding premature and medically fragile newborns—many withdrawing from substances, many without regular visitors. A typical shift might involve holding one baby the entire time, or comforting four or five infants in two hours. These “eat/sleep/console” babies—those in withdrawal—often just need a warm, steady presence.
“I want them to feel safe and cared for,” she says. “Being a nanny gives my non-working life a purpose. It’s a privilege to hold these little ones, comfort them, talk to them.”
Those who know Karen sense that the babies receive something beyond comfort: a quiet, abiding love, the same calm warmth and compassion she has exhibited throughout her life.

A Life Anchored in Compassion

Whether teaching teenagers about the darkest chapters in history, cheering her nephew on the Gonzaga Prep football field from behind a camera lens, or cradling the tiniest newborns through their first difficult days, Karen Floyd has always lived her vocation: to pay attention, to care deeply, and to act with courage and compassion. When asked what she would like to say to Prep students today, her simple answer is “It’s not about you. We are here to serve others.”

For Gonzaga Prep’s 50 years of co-education, Karen represents the best of what this community hopes to cultivate—graduates who use their gifts in service of others, quietly but profoundly shaping the world around them.