Kareen serves as the 2017 Eli J. Segal Fellow for Policy Research at Service Year Alliance. In this role, she identifies strategies to disseminate research on how one million service year corps members engaged across the nation could solve the nation’s biggest challenges. Kareen is a part of the Eli J. & Phyllis N. Segal Citizen Leadership Program at Brandeis University, which consists of 100 inspiring and multi-generational Segal Fellows committed to social change.

Prior to joining Service Year Alliance, Kareen was a Spanish Instructor in Peru. She proudly served with Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic 14-16 as a youth, families, and community development promoter along the Dominican Republic and Haitian border. Prior to her time in the Peace Corps, she served as an AmeriCorps Member with City Year Los Angeles mentoring at-risk high school students at Thomas Jefferson High School.  

She received her M.S.Ed in community and social change from the University of Miami, her B.A. in psychology, minor in sociology from the University of California, Riverside and completed an online course with Stanford University focused on International Women’s Health and Rights. As a dual US/Mexican citizen, Kareen often travels to Mexico, is fluent in Spanish and is a proud native of Los Angeles. In her free time, Kareen likes to travel, listens/dances to Latin music, attends concerts, practices yoga, hikes, is a big Los Angeles sports fanatic, eats out with friends, volunteers and is always planning her next adventure.