ÂÜŔňÂŇÂ×

An influential leader, Ms. Karkera’s career has been defined by her ability to rapidly generate and evaluate alternative, achievable solutions and build effective, diverse, and inclusive teams to attain organizational objectives.

Ms. Karkera’s impressive career includes a focus on both public sector law and fair labor practices. She holds a juris doctorate from the Washington College of Law at American University and most recently served as Deputy Chief of Staff for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, where she developed a first-of-its kind algorithm for senior leaders to forecast how their engagement outcomes would help advance the Agency’s mission. She also led a cross-agency team of senior leaders and subject matter experts in the development and implementation of the Agency’s “COVID-19 Reimagination, Reconstitution and Recovery Plan” to ensure the safety of team members during intelligence missions.

Ms. Karkera has demonstrated strong business acumen supporting the day-to-day operations of a 14,500-person global organization. With the support of her team and in less than two months, Ms. Karkera’s innovative efforts significantly increased the organizations mandatory submission requirements rate to the Department of Defense and the Office of the Director for National Intelligence. Additionally, she revamped the organization’s governance structure to reduce the overall forums thereby optimizing and prioritizing decision making clearly linked to the organization’s strategy focused on serving the mission of the intelligence community. Previously, Ms. Karkera served as trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C., assisting the Department of Justice with prosecution of claims and developing watershed legal theories that reduced potential damages by several million dollars.

With a proven track record as a practicing attorney and legal consultant, Ms. Karkera has ample experience fostering national and international strategies to enhance business and contractual relationships. She is an employment law subject matter expert with experience assessing the Title VII, Section 1981, Family Medical Labor Association (FMLA); Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA); Americans with Disability Act (ADA); among others.

While working as Assistant General Counsel for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Ms. Karkera collaborated with the Equal Opportunity Office and the Office of General Council to develop and execute live training related to equal opportunity issues and DIA equal opportunity cases, which was applauded by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence as a revolutionary way to educate the workforce. She was selected by the Director to be DIA’s Initiative Team Lead for its “Reshape DIA’s Culture” initiative, which sought to realign the Agency’s organizational culture to its core values.

With her appointment as IBTS’ CEO in October 2022, Ms. Karkera is focusing on continuing IBTS’ growth as a trusted partner and advisor to clients across sectors, leveraging the organization’s national workforce of subject matter experts and its unparalleled experience in the built environment to create stronger, more resilient, and more prosperous communities.