Karen received a B.S. in Political Science from Southwestern University in 1986, and an M.Ed. in Higher Education and Student Affairs Administration from the University of Vermont, in 1991.

Her corporate career of 30 years in Organization Development and Talent Development includes roles at The Joseph Ivy Company, Shelter Insurance Company, Missouri Employers Mutual, and more recently at The Methodist Hospital System of Houston where she was a Sr. Organization Development Specialist working with hospital leadership. Over the past 20 years, Karen has also been an independent Master Trainer and Facilitator for deBono Thinking Systems, working with a wide range of corporate clients and serving as a Vice President for The de Bono Group. Her facilitation work includes innovation practices, quality and safety, strategic thinking and planning, as well as team success strategies.

Karen started out as Admission Counselor, then Assistant Director of Admission at SU in the 1980s. She returned to SU in the early 1990s as Director of National Visibility, an advancement and campaign associated position. She held advancement roles at Texas Christian University and Tennessee Wesleyan University and was Assistant Dean of Students at The University of the South. In her time at SU, she created an international student orientation program, and an alumni-admission volunteer program. While a graduate student at the University of Vermont, Karen was a hall advisor and taught courses in group leadership theory for peer advisors along with University 101 for first year students.

She served on the SU Alumni Board in the early 2000s, and more recently, on the fundraising committee for the Allison Dickson Scholarship. As an SU student, Karen was a member of Delta, Delta, Delta, Student Foundation, Panhellenic, and Student Senate. She enjoys a range of volunteer experiences: producer for a theater company in Austin, working with Austin Metropolitan Ministries, Catholic Campus Minister, church organist and choir member, Ronald McDonald House volunteer, HOA board member, 4H leader, Girl Scout leader, Rotarian.

Karen is married to N. Eric Love, PhD, a recently retired theater professor, and they have one daughter who is a 2026 BFA graduate from The University of Tennessee.