Dr. Karen Kunz specializes in development of innovative analysis and solutions for non-profit and state executive and legislative programs. As a self-described finance geek, her expertise is public financial management, fiscal policy, and public economics.
Dr. Kunz was a faculty member with West Virginia University’s Department of Public Administration for 15 years. Her published works includes two books, and a book chapter on adaptive capacity, as well as articles on leadership, fiscal policy and public economics, and numerous reports and legislative testimony on topics such as the economic impact of state aviation policies and opportunities for economic development, sustainable funding for volunteer firefighters and administrative rules for manufacturing agricultural hemp.
Before joining academia, Dr. Kunz worked in the financial services industry, cutting her teeth in the municipal bond markets and then in general securities executive management before starting one of the first female-owned consulting firms in the industry. Services included creation of turn-key boutique investment firms, compliance and regulatory audits for clients ranging from multinational firms to individual brokers whose businesses included mutual funds, general securities and options sales, trading, market-making, underwriting, and arbitrage. Until 2005, Dr. Kunz held every industry license offered by the NASD (now FINRA).
Dr. Kunz is an Army veteran and an active board member with the American Association of Budget and Program Analysts (AABPA) and The West Virginia Food and Farm Coalition. In addition, she served two terms as a board member and officer for the West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy and a is former Commissioner with the Morgantown Utility Board (MUB) and Morgantown Human Rights Commission. She is a member of the American Economic Association (AEA) and the Association for Budget & Financial Management (ABFM) and volunteers at a cat adoption center.
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