She served at the NFTA for 45 years where she began her employment in 1977. Karen was blessed to retire in June 2022 and looked forward to living life to its fullest.  Proof of God’s favor was her ability to advance within the organization.  She started at Main and Virginia, the old location of Metro Bus as a switchboard operator providing bus route information to the public. Her career was much like that of the fellow who started in the mail room and moved up to be the Boss.

She advanced to the position of payroll clerk, then computer operator.  She was the first to train staff on how to use computers, teaching operating systems, spreadsheets and word processing. She became the Supervisor of Business Systems for 5 years, managing the Information Technology Departments programming staff.  Her skills afforded her the opportunity to become the first female African American Manager of the NFTA’s computer system serving as the Manager of Information Technology, of which she led for 20 years.  She set the foundation for the organization’s network infrastructure.  At the close of her career, she was a Business Relationship Manager serving as the liaison between the Information technology department and the organization’s business units.  She was very instrumental in the upgrade and support of the Paratransit System.

Most important to her is her spiritual growth, because without it she would not have accomplished the things she has.