Karen Ott

Portfolio Director

Karen joined A Better Chicago in 2018 as a portfolio director. In this role, Karen is responsible for leading high impact relationships with grantees. Prior to joining A Better Chicago, Karen spent ten years in the nonprofit and corporate sectors. Most recently, Karen was a senior managing director at Teach For America- Miami where she led strategy, talent and operations for the region. Prior to that, Karen worked for Teach For America- Chicago on both the partnerships and recruitment teams, and spent time at McMaster-Carr doing talent acquisition work. Karen holds a BA from University of Notre Dame and Master of Nonprofit Management from DePaul University.