As the founding CEO of Curebound and Executive Director of HereForward, I am delighted to recommend Karen Hooper, whose leadership, judgment, and partnership have had a lasting impact on Curebound and on me.

Karen and I built one of the most treasured and trusted working relationships of my career. She was a sounding board, thought partner, problem solver, and core collaborator as we worked to build the Curebound way. Her focus on mission, people, and impact never wavered throughout our four-year partnership.

Karen joined Curebound at a pivotal stage in the organization’s growth and quickly became my right hand in both strategic thinking and execution. Her versatility is one of the things that made her so valuable. She brought deep nonprofit leadership experience, a high degree of professionalism, and a rare ability to move seamlessly between vision, operations, people, governance, and implementation.

Over four years, she helped Curebound mature from a fast-growing organization with strong ambition into a more disciplined, professional, and scalable enterprise. She strengthened the systems, rhythms, and decision-making processes that allowed our work to grow with clarity, confidence, and accountability.

As Curebound transitioned from start-up phase where events, campaigns and programs were just in their infancy, Karen brought structure and forward movement to complex work across governance, research infrastructure, financial operations, organizational planning, and people strategy.

Her impact was especially meaningful in Curebound’s research and governance infrastructure here again where Karen helped transition our initial foundations to more enduring professional systems. Specifically, Karen supported the evolution of our Scientific Advisory Board structure, Research Roadmap, board and committee rhythms, and the governance structure for our research programs, building internal capacity that did not previously exist. She also strengthened the people side by clarifying roles, improving communication, supporting engagement, and building a strong staff culture.

Karen was a critical partner through major moments of growth and transition, including executive transitions, CEO maternity coverage, partner and beneficiary agreement work, operational planning, budgeting, and the development of Curebound’s signature Concert for Cures campaign. She helped turn ideas into plans, plans into structure, and structure into meaningful growth.

What makes Karen so valuable is not only that she can build and execute. It is that she does so with both head and heart. She listens deeply, asks thoughtful questions, builds trust quickly, and helps people understand what is possible. She can work deeply inside operations while stepping back to advise leaders, coach teams, and help organizations see the bigger picture.  Karen isn’t afraid to ask tough questions and address risks before they become issues. 

I believe Karen is exceptionally well suited to advise nonprofit leaders and organizations navigating growth, transition, complexity, and change. Any organization working with Karen will gain a trusted partner who can translate vision into structure, strengthen the systems needed for growth, and move from complexity to clarity.

I recommend her with my greatest enthusiasm.