Karen Messier
Karen Messier is the Vice President of Marketing & Product Development at Chrysalis Environmental Services. Aside from designing marketing and education materials, she is responsible for setting up new sites for kiosks and keeping track of the progress and needs of each site. Karen is careful to mind all of the little details, ensuring your Zeedle location will run smoothly.
As former Deputy Director of the Diabetes Foundation of Rhode Island, Karen and her business partner Cherie Ruffo started the program that later became Chrysalis. Rhode Island Resource Recovery came to them to find a solution to their problem: the many needles found on their lines that were a danger to workers, the environment, and financially costly to taxpayers. As a member of the Diabetes Foundation, Karen had experience working with people who use needles on a daily basis. They quickly discovered that over half of their customers had no idea it wasn’t safe to dispose of needles in the trash or toilet.
Karen was instrumental in the design of the basic kiosk model (as well as the later designed electronic kiosk) and education of the public in Rhode Island that would drastically reduce the number of needle incidents at RIRR (Rhode Island Resource Recovery). She developed her attention to detail, creativity and strong sense of determination while planning fundraisers at the Diabetes Foundation to assist those in need with diabetes in Rhode Island. These skills have served her well in the blossoming of Chrysalis. One of her most creative endeavors has been the creation of Ziggly and Zed, characters geared toward educating the public at a young age about the proper way to dispose of needles and medications. Karen’s goal is to educate the public and to help the environment, eliminating pollution by the dangerous items that would otherwise enter our landfills.
Karen Messier lives in Cumberland, RI with her husband Kevin. Aside from being an inspirational mother, in her spare time she loves teaching aerobics in the forms of yoga, pilates and weight lifting and engaging her creative side painting glassware and making jewelry.
Contact Karen Messier:
(401) 486-2708