Karen Shrum is the Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for Benefits on the development, implementation and integration of business technology and process requirements. She collaborates with executive leadership to implement high-performing, standardized and effective business processes that impact and improve benefits and services to Veterans. She established and led VBA’s Strategic Program Management Office. She created an enterprise project management framework and was designated as VBA’s Customer Experience executive, integrating Customer Experience into the fabric of VBA’s mission.
Shrum has over 20 years of experience in both government and industry helping organizations to transform. She held senior management consulting roles for companies such as IBM, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Grant Thornton. She served as a Partner/ Principal in Ernst & Young’s Government and Public Sector practice, supporting the transformation of key mission functions at VBA and other federal agencies. She built and led a federal organizational change management practice to deliver human capital, organizational change and talent management services. She served as an advisor to the Chief Information Officer at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, leading complex multi-million-dollar IT programs that delivered strategic IT management solutions and human capital transformation. Shrum is an American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council Fellow, having graduated from the 2020 Partner Program. In collaboration with the National Academy of Public Administration, she spoke and authored papers on the federal workforce. She holds a coaching certification from the International Coaching Federation.
