Karen oversees a team of 15 analysts that conduct research and assign credit rating to more than 750 colleges, universities, and other not-for-profit organizations in the United States. She is a member of the rating committee for the higher education and not-for-profit, healthcare, and state rating teams and has direct analytical responsibility for a diverse portfolio of institutions, including Ivy League universities, large public university systems, complex academic medical centers, and nationally prominent, not-for-profit organizations. Karen has authored publications on topics including governance and management of US universities, rating migration trends in the higher education sector, and privatized student housing and debt capacity.

Karen received her B.A. in political science from Brown University and an M.P.A. from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to joining Moody's, she worked at the Georgia Institute of Technology and interned at Monsanto.