After living in Jacksonville, FL and working for the University of North Florida for a few years Karen returned to Missouri. While living in Jacksonville, FL she became acquainted with the fire service. She started working for the University of Missouri Extension Fire & Rescue Training Institute on July 7, 2003. Some of her duties are routing incoming telephone calls, class enrollment registrations and printing completion certificates, processing transcript requests, processing instructor payroll, voucher processing, and assisting with annual fire schools and conferences.