Karen Villeneuve

The Right Honourable The Countess Spencer
Born	Karen Villeneuve 1972 (age 44–45) Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Occupation	Social entrepreneur
Spouse(s)	Mark Gordon (m. 1997; div. 2003) Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer (m. 2011)
Children	3

Karen Spencer, Countess Spencer (née Villeneuve; born 1972) is a Canadian social entrepreneur. She is the founder and CEO of Whole Child International, a U.S.-based non-governmental organization (NGO) that works to improve the quality of care for vulnerable children in childcare institutions and orphanages worldwide.

Lady Spencer was born Karen Villeneuve in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, the eldest of three children. Her father’s job as a National Parks administrator took the family to 23 homes and ten schools during her childhood; Spencer has credited this experience as the foundation for her interest in helping children without a stable home.

While attending a parenting class in Los Angeles, Spencer was introduced to the dynamic child-rearing approach of Emmi Pikler (1902–84), a Hungarian pediatrician and child development expert who established the Pikler Institute in Budapest, Hungary, for children orphaned during World War II. After visiting the Institute, Spencer was motivated to found the nonprofit Whole Child International in 2004. She sought to target the early development needs of vulnerable children in institutions.

In 2006, Whole Child began working with the Government of Nicaragua to train caregivers at the El Divino Niño children’s home in Managua. The organization now has agreements with the government of El Salvador to help improve the quality of childcare in orphanages and limited-resource childcare centers, integrate basic Whole Child principles into their regulatory framework, and create local capacity at both a governmental and academic level for best practices in childcare.

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