About
I am a product lead / strategist, focusing on projects with a user-centered, human-centered lens.
I am a founder, and product lead, focusing on projects with a user-centered, human-centered lens.
Karen Schoellkopf is the Founder, CEO of Leap Fund, and a product strategist and end-to-end product lead. She’s worked on projects for Samsung, Target, Verizon, Meetup, Spotify, the American Medical Association, and more, and led Product at VoteRunLead (which trains women to run for office). She launched Hire More Women In Tech in 2014 (making the business case for women in leadership positions in tech), and realnames.online in 2016 (about the dangers of "real name" defaults in social platforms). She received her MFA from the School of Visual Arts, and her BA from Binghamton University.
She is a Fellow at Sterling Network, whose mission is to enhance economic mobility across NYC, and was a Fellow / Member of the Good Work Guild, focused on economic security and labour-market transforming technologies.
Where I shape(d) my point of view…
Experience:
Leap Fund, Founder, CEO (2018-present)
Blue Ridge Labs @ Robin Hood, Product Fellow (2018)
Sharehold, Founding Team Member, Product & Community Strategy
Vote Run Lead, Chief Product Officer
Justworks, Head of Community
HelloFlo, Strategy & Research
Harvest / WalkaboutNYC, Community Manager / Product Manager
Education:
MFA, Photography & Related Media, The School of Visual Arts, NY
BA, English & Creative Writing, Binghamton University, NY
Continuing Education:
Front End Web Development - Google Challenge Scholarship
HTML & CSS: Part I (longform course), Git, SQL, Command Line - codecademy
Design Thinking Bootcamp, Design Gym
Learn HTML, CSS, and Bootstrap (workshop) - General Assembly
Theory Of Change Bootcamp, Beespace Incubator
Find my full CV on LinkedIn.
Selected Lectures:
I have spoken about benefits cliffs and fintech solutions to policy failures at: Ending Hunger in America: A Conversation about Benefit Cliffs, House Committee on Rules (2021); National FSS Conference by Compass Working Capital (2022); Benefits21 Leadership Forum, The Aspen Institute Financial Security Program (2022); Benefits Cliffs, ECS Forum on Justice and Opportunity (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022); Benefits Cliffs w/ a User Centered Lens, CirclesUSA Breakthrough National Conference (2021); Summit on the Economics and Policies of Cliffs in the Social Safety Net and Economic Mobility, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta (2019); Fintech Fixes to Policy Problems, NYS CDFI Conference (2019); and Unlocking Underserved Markets panel, Ideas42 Behavioral Summit (2018).
Erasmus+ / GEPLE Project: Arts, B2B Tech, and Values Presentation / Lecture (2016)
RISE conference: Future of Civic Engagement Panelist / Lecture (2015)
RISE conference: Civic and Public Art Engagement Presentation / Lecture (2014)
Selected Press Mentions can be found here.
Community:
Good Work Guild Fellow Member, RSA
Blue Ridge Labs Alumni
Tech Ladies (Founding Member)