Karen O’Malley

Managing Director, Public Affairs Practice Chair

Karen leads the Public Affairs practice at M Booth Health, focused on helping issue-oriented clients build their leadership profiles and change health policy for the better.

Over more than two decades, Karen has shaped the communications strategies for landmark developments in cancer, global health, infectious disease, and environmental issues, working with many of the world’s leading philanthropies, non-profits, government and UN agencies, associations, and health systems. Adept at institutional brand-building, advocacy and scientific communications, thought leadership, media strategy and crisis management, Karen’s guiding motivation is to make a difference in human health. Clients have included the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the World Health Organization and myriad advocacy organizations. She is the co-founder of the Corkery Group (now part of M Booth Health) and led the firm for a decade. Prior to that, she was agency-trained at Ogilvy PR and cut her teeth in advocacy communications at the Natural Resource Defense Council and various global development organizations. She is a graduate of Cornell University.