Prior to MCCG, Karen was the Collections Manager for the San Diego Museum of Man (SDMoM). Her duties included care of the artifact collections, research and development of exhibits, pest management, environmental monitoring, and aiding the curatorial department in keeping with national AAM/ICOM standards. A large part of her duties included working directly with interns and volunteers, training them on various project tasks. She also worked heavily with the archaeological collection, performing site record searches and artifact access for local Cultural Resource Management firms and local Native American bands/tribes.

This position enabled her to work with people and ethnographic collections from all over the world, such as Alebrijes and Mata Ortiz pottery from Mexico, and textiles from Guatemala, as well as numerous objects from ancient Egypt and South America. Additionally, she attended meetings on behalf of the curatorial department with special events and exhibits, updated the employee handbook, co-authored the volunteer handbook, as well as co-curated an exhibit on Monsters! Since 1999, Karen has participated in annual excavations with various universities and the Texas Archaeological Society, working with volunteers at various experience levels. Prior to working at SDMoM, she curated a number of exhibits including the Women of Flight, Amelia Earhart and a traveling exhibit SPAFF, the South Plains Army Airfield.

Karen believes the best way to care for collections is continuing education in the museum and anthropological professions by being a board member of the San Diego County Archaeological Society (SDCAS), attending classes at the Balboa Art Conservation Center (BACC), and various other workshops on collection care. She is constantly familiarizing herself with new tools and techniques including several collections management databases such as Collections Space, PastPerfect, EmbARK, Re:discovery, Microsoft Access, and FileMakerPro.

Beyond her MCCG duties, Karen loves teaching. She is an Adjunct Lecturer of Anthropology at San Diego City College and Mesa Community College. She has also become a coordinator for the California Archaeological Site Stewardship Program in which she leads and conducts two-day workshops. Through this program she is training new site stewards to help protect cultural resources throughout California. She is also a member of the Texas Archaeological Society and the Society for California Archaeology. Karen is also a Peer Reviewer for the American Alliance of Museums, conducting site visits for MAP: Collections Stewardship Assessment and Accreditation. Along with Melanie, Karen has been honored as a Woman of Vision by Modern Luxury magazine.