Dr. Karen Bender is Chief of Pediatric Cardiac Anesthesiology at Nemours Children's Hospital, Orlando, Florida. She attended college and medical school at the University of Florida in the Junior Honors accelerated program, graduated summa cum laude and named valedictorian. She pursued an internship and residency in pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Hospital followed by a second residency in anesthesiology and a fellowship in pediatric anesthesiology and critical care. She was part of the Nemours team in Orlando from 1997-2005 and rejoined the Nemours faculty at the end of 2017 from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.