Biography
In 2003, Karen started her own firm, Pope Consulting, LLC as a contract lobbyist. From 2000-2003, she worked as the Senior Governmental Affairs Representative for Georgia Electric Membership Corporation (Georgia EMC) and its family of companies, representing the businesses before the General Assembly. Pope has extensive procurement experience for almost a decade for BFI Waste System as a Market Development Manager where she worked with local governments for municipal contracts for large scale waste collection and recycling projects, among her many responsibilities.
Pope Consulting has consistently been recognized annually since 2006 by James Magazine as one of the top small lobbying firms. More noteably, James voted Karen one of the top lobbyists in their 2022 Top Lobbyist issue.
Community Involvement
Karen’s community involvement includes extensive work with the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. She chaired the Economic Development, Taxes and Tourism Committee of the Chamber’s Government Affairs Council for four years and is still an active member. Karen is a current Board Member of Sisters By Choice, a local board dedicated to providing support for low-income breast cancer patients and families. Her past civic work includes co-chairing the Atlanta Ronald McDonald House’s Annual Fundraiser, which supports the entire operating budget of the two Atlanta-area houses. She has served on the Georgia Radio Reading Service Board of Directors, the Board of the Keep Georgia Beautiful Foundation as well as four of their local affiliate chapters. She is also a graduate of Leadership Cobb, and has volunteered eight years on the Politics Day Committee for this leadership development program. She is also a graduate of the prestigious Leadership Georgia Class of 2009.
Karen received a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Georgia. While at UGA Karen was elected campus wide to the Student Government Association as a Senator representing the UGA Junior Class. She was selected by UGA to be a Legislative Aide to then Representative Louie Clark (D-Danielsville) which stated her lifelong passion for lobbying as a professional career. She completed a Master of Business Administration in 1999 from Georgia State University with a 4.0 overall GPA while working full time for BFI Waste Systems. She received The George J. Malanos Award for Academic Excellence in the Master of Business Administration Program June 1999.