Karen's area of expertise is in the public pension area. She has spent more than 40 years serving large and small public plans at the state and municipal levels. Karen oversees all types of consulting projects for her clients, including new benefit plan designs, experience studies, actuarial valuations, cost studies, asset-liability projection studies, and individual benefit calculations. She also assists clients in setting funding policy and drafting of legislation text. She has been part of an actuarial audit team that has performed more than 20 audits in recent years, including audits for some of the largest statewide public plans in the country.

Karen is responsible for the management of several large public plan clients serviced by the Seattle office and acts as mentor for several other Milliman offices on public plan issues. Karen serves on Milliman's Public Plan Specialty Practice Group, which provides leadership to the consultants practicing with public sector clients.

Karen's recent projects have included:

• Designing and implementing a hands-on projection model for retirement system staff to use to project future contribution rates with several variable factors. The model is particularly useful in measuring the impact of the 2008 market fall and estimating future economic scenarios.
• Consulting to employer groups looking to adopt a new level of benefits for new employees.
• Developing new funding policies that address market volatility and contribution rates.