She was then hand picked to serve on the elite Navy Leadership Training Team for senior officers. Karen also specialized in defense Emergency Preparedness serving at the state level and the Pentagon, and responded to national emergencies including the 9/11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina. Before launching her own consulting and training business, Karen served as a Program Director for a ten year, 50 million dollar training and technical assistance contract for the Department of Defense, supervising a team of consultant, analysts and subcontractors serving clients in 29 states. Prior to that, she had leadership jobs in numerous non-profit entities, including Executive Director, Committee Chair and Comptroller. Karen is a Professional Member of the National Speaker’s Association, a former newspaper columnist and award winning public speaker. Karen’s current speaking, consulting and training business, BattleAxe Consulting Services, serves clients in national defense, leadership and women’s issues throughout the United States.