Karan was born at Bryan Air Force Base Texas. In her early years, she lived in England where her father was stationed in the US Air Force. After leaving England, at age 4, she lived in various parts of Texas. She attended high school in College Station at A&M Consolidated High School and attended Texas A&M University where she majored in English and minored in Spanish. After leaving A&M, she taught in middle and high school for 4 years and then spent several years as a stay-at-home mom. When her children got older, she returned to teaching and spent most of her teaching career teaching middle school English and Spanish. About 8 years ago, she took a position with Region 13 Education Service Center in Austin, Texas training and supporting individuals seeking teacher certification through the Region 13 Educator Certification Program. She has since moved into a position of senior coordinator for the department and now oversees the teacher, counselor, master reading teacher and paraprofessional certification programs. She has two sons who are both married. One is a policeman with the Texas A&M University Police and the other is a minister in the United Methodist church. She has two wonderful daughters in law. One is a teacher and the other is a marriage and family therapist. She has a two year old granddaughter who is a wonderful joy in her life. Her husband is an electrical engineer with Austin Energy. They live in Pflugerville, Texas.