With a background in international relations, economic empowerment, and human development, Karen has spent the past 15+ years as a bridge-builder between the for-profit and non-profit sectors. Her north star is equalizing the birth lottery because there are smart people with great ideas everywhere, but access to resources, capital, and opportunity is not equal.
As the Strategic Partnerships and Rapid Response lead on PayPal's Social Innovation team, Karen drives collaborations with internal and external stakeholders to support existing and new partnerships as well as lead Social Innovation’s Rapid Response efforts. During her tenure at Kiva, Karen cultivated and expanded strategic partnerships in the US and across Asia with a portfolio of corporate, foundation, and institutional partners. Prior to joining Kiva, Karen managed strategic corporate partnerships for the American Heart Association. Karen enjoys working closely with ecosystem partners to build mutually beneficial, long-term, strategic partnerships. She’s passionate about connecting and leveraging the worlds of non-profits and for-profits to create positive social impact and racial equity in the US and abroad.
As part of her Master’s Degree program, Karen helped implement an HIV/AIDS program for high school students at the Bapagrama Educational Center near Bangalore in southern, rural India. In 2010 Karen was a microfinance Kiva Fellow with the Local Enterprise Assistance Program in Monrovia, Liberia. She has lived, worked, studied, and/or traveled extensively throughout Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, North America, and South America. Karen holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Development from UC San Diego and a Master's Degree in International Relations from SIT Graduate Institute in Vermont. She also completed Seth Godin’s short and
immersive altMBA program as well as IDEO U’s Leading for Creativity program.