Karen Petersen
Assistant to the Governing BodiesKaren Petersen joined the Office of the Bishop in December 2025 and provides project management support to governance activities, projects within the Office of the Bishop, and to diocese-wide events. She is excited about this new chapter in her life of supporting the Diocese of Olympia and feels deeply grateful for the opportunity to serve God’s purposes across our beloved community.
Karen is a member of Saint Mark’s Cathedral and is an active participant in the Center for Spirituality and Action and Education for Ministries and helps prepare weekly community dinners. She is lay leader for the Eucharistic Ministers and has joined the Worship Leader and Eucharistic Visitor ministries. Karen has deep experience in The Episcopal Church including creating a master of ceremonies ministry that combined elements of deacon, sacristan, altar guild, chalice bearer, and acolyte duties / leadership, and a good dose of jack-of-all-trades in her former parish in Woodland Hills, CA. That experience instilled a deep love of service and the Eucharist.
Karen is a retired rocket scientist/project manager and has a BS in Aerospace Engineering from UW, MS in Systems Architecture & Engineering from USC, and an MBA from UCLA. For the last 15 years of their lives, she was caregiver to her beautiful singing mom, Rebecca, and Norwegian dad, Sigmund, who have gone on to be with our Lord. Karen also has a passion for dog sports with her fun Bernese Mountain Dogs and has participated in conformation, obedience, rally, agility, herding, and draft (dogs pulling carts). She has been involved in draft as a competitor, organizer, teacher, and judge and loves to work with people learning to partner with their dogs to bring out their working instincts.
- kpetersen@ecww.org
- 206.325.4200 x2021