Karen Karnicki is a program officer for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund’s Peacebuilding program, focusing on advancing a pro-peace U.S. foreign policy and conflict transformation in Afghanistan.
Ms. Karnicki joined the RBF in 2015 as the program assistant for the Peacebuilding and Western Balkans programs. From 2019 to 2025, Ms. Karnicki led the Peacebuilding program’s grantmaking on refugee and forced migration issues. She has seeded a number of donor organizing and collaboration efforts and advised other foundations on their grantmaking strategies as a consultant.
Prior to joining the RBF, Ms. Karnicki conducted research to support efforts to mainstream gender within the intergovernmental processes of the UN system. She also previously worked for a nonprofit focused on building the capacity of grassroots social movements.
Ms. Karnicki was a 2020-2021 Penn Kemble Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy. She has held many leadership positions within the field of peace and security philanthropy, including previously serving as chair of the Peace and Security Funders Group Steering Committee and as a current guiding group member of the Human Rights Funders Network Better Preparedness Initiative.
Ms. Karnicki holds a Master of Arts in human rights studies with a concentration in gender and transitional justice from Columbia University, as well as a B.A. from Boston College, where she double majored in Slavic studies and Islamic civilization and societies.