Candidate for
Board Member; Valley Center Pauma Unified School District

Karen Burstein is an experienced business leader who has been managing the human resources department of the largest charter school system in California. Karen is passionate about education of our youth, their retention in school, and accountability measurements to improve performance. Karen has solid experience as an educator and a business leader. Karen has written several books including Pay for Results and has taught at the university level. She started her career as a math teacher, and after 20 years of running a state wide business, she retired to go back to education and give back to the community youth.

Karen is a credentialed mathematics teacher and has a MBA from UCLA. She has taught at the college level at both UCLA and Loyola. She has also taught Junior Achievement and worked with Regional Occupational Programs. She is the author of You and Your First Job, a publication given out by PHIRA to high school students in California.

Karen Burstein combines a unique combination of financial accounting, educational reporting and innovative educational programs. Here are some highlights of her background: worked for San Diego Trust in human resources, 1984 Olympic in LA, started a midsized human resources consulting company and managed it for 20 years, sold it in 2000 and began working with at-risk youth in a public charter school system. Karen has managed the training and development of over 200 teachers, managed the human resource issues, and set up the most sophisticated teacher incentive program in the state for public schools.

Recently, Karen has served on the financial committee and advisory board of the largest charter in California serving 8 school districts. With a background in innovative education, Karen also serves on the board of Pathways in Education which is a non-profit creating innovative educational methods to improve retention of at-risk youth.