Karen is the director of marketing and communications for the Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association (AMLA) where she works collaboratively with President/CEO Tami Reist to guide the organization’s marketing and communications activities and operations in an effort to position the North Alabama region as a must-experience destination for leisure travel.

She has over 27 years of marketing and public relations experience, most recently working as a freelance public relations consultant for tourism organizations and festivals throughout north Alabama and in Tennessee prior to coming to AMLA.

She holds a B.S. degree in marketing and an MBA from the University of North Alabama. A lifelong Roll Tide fan, she resides in Decatur, Ala. but now spends some of her time, along with too much money, in another area of the state known as "the Plains." She has two children, Keller, who is completing an online degree through the University of North Alabama; and Logan, a sophomore at Auburn University.