Early life
Shepherd was born in Silver City, New Mexico, where her father, Ralph Felker, worked for the U.S. Forest Service. The family soon moved to southern Utah and lived in many small towns throughout Shepherd's childhood as the Department of Agriculture transferred them from place to place until they settled in Provo where she went to high school. Shepherd earned a B.A. in English from the University of Utah in 1962 and went on to receive an M.A. in British Literature from Brigham Young University (BYU) in 1963. In 1963 Shepherd married Vincent Shepherd and they moved to Fort Lewis, Washington, where he was an officer in the Army. In Washington, she taught English at Olympic Junior College. Upon her husband's discharge from the Army, the couple both accepted positions at the American University in Cairo, Egypt, where they lived for two years. Returning to the U.S and resettling in Utah, the Shepherds had two children, Heather and Dylan. Vincent owned and operated a wholesale oil distributing company and Karen taught Freshman English at Brigham Young University. Shepherd became politically active with the Democratic Party, working for the Senate campaigns of bothU.S. Congresswoman
Karen Shepherd's 1992 campaign platform led with a balanced budget, and support for government involvement in health care reform, education, abortion, and the environment. She put forward a 10-point plan for improving children's lives that included tracking down delinquent fathers and fully funding Head Start. In the general election she ran against Enid Greene who had been an aide to Utah Governor Norman Bangerter and was a fiscal and social conservative who opposed all of her positions. Shepherd won the race by a narrow 50 percent to 47 percent margin, becoming the second woman in Utah's history to be elected to Congress. Once sworn into Congress in January 1993, Shepherd was placed on the Natural Resources and the Public Works and Transportation Committees. A leader in the Freshman Caucus, she became co-chair, along with Eric Fingerhut, of the freshman reform effort that prepared legislation to reform lobbying and campaign finance practices. Among many recommendations, they proposed gifts from lobbyists to lawmakers be banned and that Members be barred from chairing more than one committee. She supported President Clinton's 1993 Budget package that cut the budget and also raised taxes on upper income people. The budget passed by a single vote. "It seems to me it's not perfect," Shepherd said of the proposed budget. "But the worst of all of the alternatives is not to pass it, and not move forward to health care, free trade and all of these things we need to do." She also supported the Brady Bill and the Assault Weapon Ban. Her willingness to take tough stands in her District and at the same time stand up to her party on issues of reform led one prominent columnist to say just before her election, "But whether Shepherd wins or loses, her stand is a reminder of a formula for successful progressive politics that's been characteristic of the western states." In her 1994 Election Shepherd faced Enid Greene again, however, Greene was now married and had changed her last name to Waldholtz. There was also a third candidate in the race, an Independent,Post Congressional career
Immediately upon leaving Congress Karen Shepherd was a Fellow at the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. In 1995 she served as part of an international delegation to monitor the first elections held on the West Bank and in Gaza. In 1996 President Clinton nominated her to serve as the executive director at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London, U.K. where she served until 2002. While she was there, she chaired the East West Trade and Investment Forum of the American Chamber of Commerce and became a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Returning to the United States in 2002, she worked as a regional advisor for Emily's List, served on three corporate boards as well as on the national Planned Parenthood Action Council, and in Utah, served on the boards of Wasatch Homeless Health Care Inc. and the University of Utah's Humanities Partnership and the David Eccles School of Business.Electoral history
See also
*References
External links
*Further reading
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 'Karen Shepherd," http://bioguide.congress.gov Women in Congress: 1917-2006, prepared under the direction of The Committee on House Administration of the u. S. House of Representatives; Vernon J. Ehlers, Chairman, Juanita Millender-McDonald, Ranking Member: U.S. government Printing Office, Washington D.C., 2006. Former Congresswoman's Shepherd's papers are in the Marriott Library Special Collections at the University of Utah, and are open for research. The register can be accessed at http://nwda.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv11703/op=fstyle.aspx?t=k&q=Shepherd&c=uu. Call (801) 581-8863 for more information. {{DEFAULTSORT:Shepherd, Karen 1940 births Brigham Young University alumni Female members of the United States House of Representatives Living people University of Utah alumni Women in Utah politics People from Silver City, New Mexico Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Utah 20th-century American women politicians 20th-century American politicians American expatriates in Egypt