Karen Martin, Board Member 

Director of Board Relations, American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ABOG)

Building People, Places and Profits

Karen Martin applies a donor-focused, marketing philosophy as advisor to philanthropists and charities.  Her niche is designing infrastructure advancing 501(c)s—from start-up social service agencies to higher education. Martin launched annual, major and planned gifts programs and improved fiscal controls as CEO. She met a $55 million campaign goal for Texas Woman’s University-T. Boone Pickens Institute of Health Sciences-Dallas with unprecedented His & Hers endowed nursing faculty chairs.

Karen excels in building people, places and profits through timely and ethical customer service, PR strategies, and by expanding comprehensive operations to boost revenues from targets met on or under deadline. Photographic recall, enthusiasm and organizing are gifts. People say, “You know EVERYBODY!” Board/staff development and strategic planning are led in ballrooms and boardrooms. She was Texas PTA’s Chief Architect of the Governance & Leadership Model Bylaws restructure adopted by 2012 Convention delegates.  It became the blueprint for the nation’s 49 state PTA membership associations.

A ‘Pedagogue’ (ENFJ) style has inspired lifelong speaking and faculty experience in the areas of leadership, marketing and career development. Skills honed as Executive Director transfer to executive search and interim roles. Credentials include Certified Fund Raising Executive, Competent Toastmaster, N. Texas LEAD endorsed candidate, PMP Certification Coursework (40 Hours) and First Class/GOLD Girl Scout. Martin holds Public Relations and MBA degrees from Baylor, where she was Student Foundation VP and trailblazer as the first female Regional Development Director assigned to the Baylor Nursing School. 

The Wynne, AR native credits her 90-year-old Dad’s family funeral home business for event planning skills.

She married City of Dallas IT executive Karl D. Martin in 1984. They share son Kameron and daughter Kamille, granddaughter Kyler Alice, grandsons Nico and Robbie. Karen’s a grateful 21-year breast cancer survivor whose journey is chronicled in The Power of Our Voices anthology. A lifelong Baylor FANatic, she follows the Bears and fishing trends—for funding and fish!