Karen E. Richardson, founder and president of KRB Strategies, is a prominent political, communications and social impact strategist working at the intersection of politics and entertainment.
She has nearly two decades of experience in developing and executing a broad variety of issue-driven high-profile campaigns.
With a rare expertise in domestic and international issues, Karen brings a breadth of knowledge in public policy, politics, coalition building and government to help her clients reimagine transformational and cultural change on a global scale.
Karen has almost 20 years of experience in complex, multidisciplinary leadership roles that have required extensive team-building/leadership acumen, multi-platform crisis, tactical and strategic communications skills, and ongoing innovation at the intersection of public and media perception of high-profile national conversations.
A public affairs professional with expertise in foreign and domestic policy issues, Karen provides clients in the entertainment, nonprofit and private sectors with strategic counsel on social impact issues and campaigns, strategic communications and outreach, political strategy, long-term strategic planning, traditional and digital organizing, and coalition building.
An eight-year veteran of the Obama Administration, Karen served in senior leadership roles at the White House and at the U. S. Department of State, where she was appointed a Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs.
Among Karen’s numerous successes for the Obama White House and John Kerry’s State Department include public outreach, strategic communications and messaging for the historic passage of the Affordable Care Act, the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ US/Cuba relations, and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, in addition to the Department of State’s first-ever Entertainment Industry Initiative.
After 20 years in Washington DC, Karen brought her passion for public service and activism to her hometown of Los Angeles in 2017, where she transitioned to the private sector as a senior member of RALLY communications firm during the start-up phase of the seminal Time’s Up campaign.
As an advisor for Time’s Up, Karen orchestrated operational and strategic planning, and public messaging for this global movement.
Karen also has led diversity, equity and inclusion campaigns for clients in the entertainment industry, including for the Recording Academy, and was recently Head of Communications for Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti in his role as Chair of C40 Cities, a global non-profit committed to combating climate change.
Karen is a focused, collaborative and astute professional with exceptional strategic insights that allow her to deliver game-changing, cross-sector results with both national and global impacts. She is a proud graduate of the London School of Economics and Political Science (Master of Science), Howard University School of Law (JD), and Howard University (BA), and she currently resides in Los Angeles with her family.