Karen Volker

BIOGRAPHY

Released by the Office of Policy Planning
December 5, 2006 

Karen Volker joined the Secretary’s Policy Planning Staff in September 2006. She covers countering violent extremist ideology, Counterterrorism, and public diplomacy.  Prior to joining the Policy Planning Staff, Ms. Volker was Deputy Director for Policy Planning and Resources in the Office of Under Secretary Karen Hughes.

From June 2004-July 2005, Ms. Volker was the Deputy Director for Political Affairs in the State Department’s Office of European Union and Regional Affairs.  Before that, she spent a year working as a foreign policy advisor to Senator Joseph I. Lieberman as part of the State Department’s Pearson Fellowship Program.  From 2001-2003, Ms. Volker was the U.S. Coordinator for the Stability Pact for Southeast Europe. From 1986 – 2001, Ms. Volker served in various capacities in the U.S. Department of State, including overseas assignments in Budapest, London and Brussels.  In the early 1990s, she worked in the State Department’s offices responsible for coordinating interagency assistance efforts to Central and Eastern Europe and, later, to the former Soviet Union.  She is married and has two children.

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