Interim Grants Associate

Karen is a Columbus, Ohio-based, seasoned consultant with over 15 years of experience in workplace culture, operationalizing equity, nonprofit directorship, and healing-centered leadership. They hold a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from St. Francis University (PA) and a Master of Arts in Educational Policy and Leadership from The Ohio State University. Karen’s career began in collegiate athletics and higher education as a women’s basketball coach and mathematics adjunct professor, eventually evolving into a passion for cultivating workplace cultures rooted in safety, connection, and belonging. They specialize in trauma-informed facilitation, culture and diversity strategy, and leadership development, particularly centering Black, LGBTQIA+, and neurodivergent experiences. Karen is known for their ability to hold space for complexity while moving individuals and organizations toward clarity, accountability, and growth. They are driven by a deep belief in the transformative power of connection and the possibility of workplaces that allow for healing.

Karen brings a grounded, holistic approach to their coaching and strategic facilitation practice, and brings much-needed clarity and vision to the granting and relationship-building work of the Brush Foundation. Their approach weaves data, lived experience, and humor to support sustainable change that centers people and community. Whether guiding leadership teams through difficult conversations or designing healing-informed strategies for organizational resilience, Karen helps clients move from intention to impact.

Outside of consulting, they are a published author and poet, multidisciplinary artist, and rest advocate who finds joy in community, creativity, and connection.

Interim Program Director

Rachel is a Cleveland, Ohio-based reproductive rights, health, and justice infrastructure strategist and advisor, as well as a nonprofit generalist. She has nearly two decades of experience strengthening the operational, financial, and people-care systems that sustain movement organizations. Her work began in direct service as a Patient Advocate at Preterm, where she redesigned patient funding processes to be more trauma-informed, data-driven, and accessible for patients. Since then, she has held leadership and interim roles in development, finance, HR, and statewide operations at NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio (now Abortion Forward) and Abortion Fund of Ohio.

In 2019, she founded Work in Progress Consulting (WIP), where she has since partnered with over three dozen reproductive rights, health, and justice organizations and projects across the country. Her work includes executive coaching, search, & hire, multi-entity compliance, operational systems design, change management, fiscal sponsorship, fund management, grantor work, and comprehensive employee-care initiatives. WIP’s largest bodies of work have been led by Rachel in facilitating NEOPAC, the LGBTQIA+ coalition of Northeast Ohio, as well as the Infrastructure Building Working Group, a 14-organization statewide response to the Dobbs decision that delivered shared resources, technical assistance, emergency response infrastructure, large-scale change management, and a 90-person staff needs assessment across Ohio clinics. A long-time student of community-centric and trust-based philanthropy principles, Rachel has led the way for multiple private foundations including the Preterm Foundation, the Gerson Family Foundation, and now, the Brush Foundation.

When she’s not working, Rachel is likely spending time with her toddler, working on a new recipe, or out in the garden.