Karen Johnson Email & Phone Number

Seattle, Washington, United States

• Strategy Development: Developed multi-year strategy with key performance indicators; used to execute against our R&D and scale goals. The vast majority of goals were met or exceeded.• Portfolio Management: Managed a $20M/yr R&D/Innovation portfolio in grades 3-9 math over four years. Identified best-in-class products and programs, activated and managed grants, determined which grants to re-invest in. • Research & Development (R&D): Co-created an “R&D Engine” for the foundation that identified the strongest projects likely to lead to “breakthrough results” for priority math students (Black, Latino, and/or experiencing poverty). • Scale: Invested in large $10-20M grants for key math core curriculum and tutoring providers, aimed at addressing unfinished learning and combatting the K-shaped recovery occurring during the pandemic.• Measurement, Learning & Evaluation (MLE): Recruited and selected measurement expertise to develop a definition for “breakthrough results”, common measures, measurement toolkit, measurement plans, and MLE deep dives. Work was recognized by foundation leadership for other teams to replicate. • Cross-functional Team Leadership: Led complex projects, such as the Algebra 1 Grand Challenge. Processes and systems created by our team dramatically reduced bias and led to awarding 82% of our grants to minority-led organizations.• Thought Leadership: Served as an advisor to a “student success” policy paper for the Biden/Harris administration, which was used as a basis for the bi-partisan call to action on youth mental health, tutoring and mentoring in the 2022 State of the Union. Co-led a funders group interested in high-impact tutoring, resulting in collaboration and co-investment. Members from Arnold Ventures, Citadel, Overdeck, Robin Hood, Schusterman and Walton.• New Partners: Identified and brought on key new grantees to the foundation. (NSSA, Saga Education, Student Experience Research Network, The Young People’s Project, Zearn).

San Mateo, Ca

GiftedandTalented.com is the culmination of 25 years of research at Stanford University. Our flagship K-7 math course, Redbird Mathematics, featured adaptive curriculum, 15,000+ math problems, and STEM-based projects. We also offered K-12 courses in math, language arts, science, and programming.• Marketing: Grew the client-base through SEO and social media buys.

San Francisco Bay Area

• Strategy Development: Developed the marketing, social media and PR strategies for a K-12 science and social studies education technology company.• Product Development: Created and managed the product roadmap based on business goals, customer research, and market feedback. Conducted customer UX testing and interviews, generating actionable recommendations for our engineers. Resulted in a 28% reduction in support tickets.• EdTech Transformation: Transitioned classrooms from using traditional textbooks to using our online learning platform. As a team we increased use from 0.3% of all users to 70% of 67K teachers and 50% for 1.1M students through a redesign in pricing strategy, trainings, customer emails, etc.• Sales Pipeline: Uncovered $5M in sales opportunities, leading to 72% increase in visits to our website and 425% increase in overall page views by creating sales tools and improving SEO to increase customer acquisition.• Sales & Marketing Collateral: Designed numerous online and offline collateral, including virtual sales tools, datasheets, product videos, tutorials, webinars, presentations, and more.• Photo and Video Shoots: Produced, scripted, and directed over 600 educational videos, making our product more approachable and understandable to teachers. Customer responses included glowing emails like this: "In all my years of teaching, this is the most student-friendly program I have ever had the privilege of using."

San Francisco Bay Area

• Marketing: Led U.S. marketing for eBay’s newest site, eBay Express. Coordinated marketing and public relations plans and execution. Resulted in positive press in Business Week and MSNBC.• Consumer Research: Designed and managed $1.25M in consumer research ranging from customer segmentation, competitive benchmarking, new product development, and shopping behavior studies. Research directly improved eBay’s products and marketing efficacy.

Greater Seattle Area

• Change Management, Training & Communications: Assessed organizational structure for $9.6B computer manufacturer. Developed comprehensive change management, training, and communications strategy, targeting 8,000 employees in 300 locations.• Online Procurement: Implemented online procurement solution (Ariba) for nation’s largest HMO. Reduced registration cycle time by 35%, shattering industry standards for the number of suppliers using Ariba in five months.• Lean Manufacturing: Achieved recurring savings of $6.6M/yr for a $51B aerospace company by streamlining business processes and reducing operation costs.

Mba, Marketing And Nonprofit Management

Activities and Societies: Board Fellow. New Business Development for Michigan Red Cross. Michigan Business Women President. Created.

Ba, Psychology Major With Sociology Minor

Activities and Societies: WUlapalooza -- Supervised the planning and execution of an all-day music and art festival for 1600 students.