As Senior Major Gifts Officer at the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation, Karla is responsible for building relationships with our donor community in the Midwest and West Coast regions, by providing opportunities for donors to engage more deeply with the Hertz community and make transformational gifts to support the foundation and its fellows.
Karla joined the foundation in 2020, after 14 years of fundraising work at the University of California, Berkeley. There, she inspired donors to endow a scholarship/mentoring program for women in STEM, chaired the Fundraising Council, a 600-member professional advancement community, and served as Major Gifts Director of Parent Philanthropy, where her entrepreneurial spirit helped her cultivate parent communities and donors across the country.
Karla began her career in higher education at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, as creative director and editor of the alumni newsletter and online community. At the height of the dot.com boom in 2000, she worked as a business development director for a number of branding and design agencies, developing marketing materials and websites for an array of startup companies.
Karla has a bachelor’s degree with a double major in psychology and philosophy from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where she was also a state volleyball champion. A former competitive road cyclist (category 2), Karla is now a tournament golfer and avid bocce player. She has been a yoga instructor for 25+ years. A volunteer gardener for Bluma Farm – a certified organic rooftop garden – which inspires her own beautiful flower arrangements. Karla also enjoys art-making, photography, travel, and spending time with family, including her two sons, Nick and Graeme, and their families.
