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Karen Kemerling

Golden, Colorado, United States

Karen Kemerling, PhD, is the founder of K2 | Leadership Development – a leadership coaching and organizational development company. She brings 35+ years of leadership experience as a past CEO, President, COO, and CIO, leading all aspects of business in large global companies, smaller businesses, and non-profits. She successfully completed her doctoral dissertation on the productivity of remote teams. 


Karen uses a variety of approaches to actively coach leaders to develop a growth mindset and foster psychologically safe teams and organizations. 


When not working, Karen enjoys biking, running, hiking, golf, guitars, beer, reading, and spending time with her family.

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Learn More About Karen

Karen has experience working within the following areas, and would welcome additional clients in:

  • Aerospace
  • Education
  • Financial Services
  • Healthcare, Pharmaceutical & Medical Devices/Equipment
  • IT & Data Infrastructure
  • Nonprofits

Through her consultancy K2 | Leadership Development, Karen enjoys focusing her work on business strategy, psychological safety, and executive coaching.


She is available to support senior and C-suite leaders, senior leadership teams, department/division teams, and organization-wide groups.

Karen earned her BS from National American University, an MS-MIS from Roosevelt University, and her PhD from Colorado Technical University. 


Languages spoken: English


Additionally, she has earned the following certifications and/or industry credentials:

  • Brain Based Coaching Certification
  • Certified Scrum@Scale Practitioner
  • Scrum Alliance Certified Enterprise Coach®
  • Certified ScrumMaster®
  • Brave Leader Recognized
  • Fearless Organization Certified Coach
  • Bregman Leadership Intensive

Speaking Engagements

Karen is a frequent speaker at industry events, both online and on-stage.


In 2024, she was interviewed by Erik Wolf for the ChairWaves podcast which highlights chairs of Vistage, a CEO advisory group.

Connect with Karen

Articles, Podcasts & More Featuring this ALJ Guide

A woman is sitting in front of a group of people in a living room.

Building High-Performing Teams: Introverts and Extroverts

By Karen Kemerling • December 10, 2024
For better or worse, there is risk associated with teams that are dominated by extroverted people, but there are ways to mitigate those risks.
An illustration of people

What’s So Hard About Psychological Safety, Anyway?

By Karen Kemerling • May 16, 2023
Explore the complexities of embedding psychological safety in teams as leaders face the challenges of creating an environment where individuals feel safe to speak up and challenge the status quo.
Show artwork for Relearning Leadership Podcast Episode

4: Leading from the Middle

By Relearning Leadership Podcast • March 3, 2021
Travis Matthews, a Director of IT Solutions, shares his story about the challenges of leading change from the middle of the organization and the skills required to do it well. Following Travis’ story, Karen Kemerling, a brain-based leadership coach, joins Pete to discuss Travis’ change story and what we can (re)learn to be more effective catalysts for change in our organizations.
Pete Behrens and Karen Kemmerling discuss the importance of relearning.

1: Why Relearning Leadership?

By Relearning Leadership Podcast • January 27, 2021
Karen and Pete explore why we created this podcast, who this podcast is for, and what we can look forward to throughout our first season of Relearning Leadership.

Upcoming Workshops & Trainings