Karen Murrell

• Financial education, asset building, consumers, personal finance• Author, You and Your Money: A No-Stress Guide to Becoming Financially Fit, 2007• Helps companies serve low-income consumers to build assets

Karen L. Murrell is a Senior Research Fellow in the Asset Building Program of the New America Foundation and the founder and president of Higher Heights Consulting and Training, a privately held firm located in Silver Spring, Maryland.

In her role as Senior Research Fellow, Ms. Murrell explores innovations in financial services and asset building. In her capacity as president of Higher Heights Consulting and Training, Ms. Murrell works with the financial services industry to develop programs and products to improve the financial well-being of lower-income consumers. Murrell brings more than 15 years of leadership and hands-on experience in the housing and financial services industry. Her firm helps companies serve low-income consumers more effectively and help them to build assets. She works with the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. Her clients include Allstate Insurance, Bank of America, Citigroup, Countrywide Financial, Fannie Mae, GE Consumer Finance, NeighborWorks America, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Aspen Institute, and the City of New York. Murrell’s work has regularly appeared in national print and broadcast media outlets and all major wire services.

Prior to founding Higher Heights Consulting and Training, Ms. Murrell held various leadership positions at Fannie Mae. In these capacities, Ms. Murrell launched Fannie Mae’s initiatives to help consumers prepare for homeownership. Her work included the development of numerous nationally recognized educational publications in nine different languages, the strategic implementation of a national multilingual consumer advertising campaign, and the creation of several key innovative alliances with Fortune 500 companies, nonprofit organizations, financial institutions, faith-based institutions and government agencies to develop initiatives to increase homeownership.

Ms. Murrell is the co-author of You and Your Money: A No-Stress Guide to Becoming Financially Fit (Financial Times Press, 2007), which examines the impact of societal change on personal finances and identifies the character traits of financially savvy people.

Ms. Murrell serves on the board of the DC Public Library and on the Board of Advisors for Topics Education.

She received a master's degree in Marketing from the University of Maryland and a bachelor's degree in Communications from Temple University. In her spare time, she enjoys running, tennis, and skiing.