Karen A. Egerer

Karen A. Egerer has more than thirty years experience developing and implementing international training and educational programs.  In the fall of 1989, Karen formed Heartland International, a Chicago-based nonprofit organization, specializing in the design, implementation and evaluation of international programs and projects.  Since then, Heartland International has implemented numerous projects for political leaders, parliamentarians and entrepreneurs from the emerging democracies of Eastern and Central Europe, the former Soviet Union, Africa and Asia.  These training and education programs have focused on methods of strengthening democratic values and institutions and promoting microenterprise development.

 Prior to forming Heartland International, Karen served as a consultant on the staff of the Program on Peace and International Cooperation at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.  In this position, she was responsible for evaluating funding proposals, surveying international grantmaking over a ten-year period and designing new grantmaking programs.

 At the University of Illinois at Chicago, Karen served as coordinator of international programs.  She was responsible for building relations between the University and overseas institutions; city, state and federal government agencies; and leaders in the international affairs field.  Among the programs that she designed, implemented and gained funding for were a business and international education project funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education; a USIA sponsored reciprocal exchange program for members of the Illinois General Assembly and the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federated Republic; and a privately funded Center for International Students and Scholars.  Karen was also responsible for assisting faculty members identify funding sources for their international projects and for engaging interdisciplinary groups in the development of new projects, such as an academic exchange to develop a Thai Studies Program.

 Karen was the program director at the Mid-America Committee for International Business and Government Cooperation, a private organization whose members include the chief executive officers of the major corporations based in the Chicago area.  As program director, she was responsible for designing and implementing programs that brought together heads of state and senior government officials with Committee members.  She also planned and organized a series of seminars designed to train corporate executives in the techniques of doing business in specific countries.

 As co-director of the World Without War Council in Chicago, Karen successfully managed numerous programs on international issues ranging from human rights to arms control.  Her work included editing a volume on the SALT II agreement, compiling a directory of world affairs organizations and managing an Illinois Humanities Council funded series on arms control agreements.

 Karen, a graduate of DePaul University, is a member of the Illinois chapter of the Society for International Development, the President’s Circle of the Chicago Council for Global Affairs and the Illinois Steering Committee of the Campaign for US Global Leadership. She has teaching experience at the middle school level; has served as a teacher trainer for the Archdiocese of Chicago in the field of global education and as a consultant to the National Catholic Education Association in the same field.  For her work with Call to Action, she received a community service award from the Association of Chicago Priests.  Karen was the Chicago representative for the President's International Youth Exchange Initiative.