Karen A. Curley

Biography

Karen Curley is an executive coach, educator, and organizational development consultant specializing in helping individuals, teams, and organizations reach their maximum potential. She has spent the last 30 years integrating a systems perspective into building sustainable solutions that address business challenges and achieve desired results. Karen's style is highly interactive and builds off of the experience of her clients/program participants. Using a mix of evidence-based content, case studies, and scenarios, individual reflection and small group activities, learning sessions are meant to provoke discussion, to provide and build on foundational skills and to set in motion practical ways to apply the learning.  

Karen began her career in non-profit elder care, where she discovered her knack for designing learning programs that improved the lives of homebound elders at Boston Senior Home Care. Her professional journey took her into the field of work/life balance at Work/Family Directions, restructuring referral networks, leading cross-functional teams and working to define dependent care strategies for clients in the American Business Collaboration. This work led to a passion for helping organizations achieve and sustain excellence and brought Karen into academic medical centers, designing, developing and implementing leadership development solutions, first at The University of Colorado Hospital and then at UMass Memorial Healthcare. At Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Karen rebuilt a static training team into a sought-after internal consultancy. As the Senior Vice President, Client Solutions, at TLD Group, Inc., she engaged executive leaders as a thought partner to design innovative solutions driving pipeline development and succession readiness efforts for local and global clients across the health ecosystem. Karen continues this work as Owner and Principal Consultant for KAC Activation Associates. 

Throughout her career, Karen has served as a catalyst to activate positive change and drive sustainable outcomes in leaders, leadership teams and organizations. Karen’s ability to quickly assess needs, design and implement solutions and evaluate effectiveness resonates well with today’s business model demanding flexibility and agility. Her expertise in project management, process improvement and organizational effectiveness has made Karen a sought-after speaker, facilitator and consultant across the healthcare, legal and retail business sectors. As an ICF ACC certified Executive Coach, Karen works closely with physician & nursing leaders, administrative executives, leaders in transition and high potential leaders, to bring their unique talents forward and translate intention in action. 

Karen continues to work in the academic sector as a visiting lecturer within leadership development programs and with executive audiences at the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health. Karen holds a B.A. in Psychology from Washington University in St. Louis and both a M.S.W. and a M.P.H from Boston University. 

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