Karen Epp Mortimer of Durham, North Carolina serves as secretary for Guinnovation’s board of directors. Karen’s 45-year career includes executive positions with U.S. non-profits focused on health care, children’s services, and services for at-risk youth and adults. The Caring Program for Children, a precursor to the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), was described by a leading state legislator as “one of the best examples in North Carolina of a public-private partnership.”
Karen started up and ran several new non-profit organizations, with responsibilities for fund-raising, budget planning and maintaining relationships with stakeholders. She also served as Human Resources director for a statewide children-services organization and was executive director of a medical peer review foundation that performed quality of care audits for providers of Medicare services.
Among several volunteer roles, she served as a board member of the local Juvenile Crime Prevention Council and coordinated 20 volunteers at her son’s high school. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Redlands in California and received an M. ED. in Child Development and Family Relations from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She also completed a Certificate Program in Health Policy, Planning and Regulation from Harvard University.