Karen Talbott
“A Lifetime of Leadership”
Karen L. Talbott is President & CEO of Child Guidance & Family Solutions and the retired President of Visiting Nurse Service and Affiliates. She was also previously a client service executive with Ernst & Young, specializing in the health care industry. She served as a Facilitator for the Leadership Akron NEXT Program as well.
Karen holds both bachelors and masters degrees from Kent State University. She is a Fellow of Hospice and Home Care, one of only a few so designated in the United States by the National Association for Home Care. She is a graduate of Leadership Akron.
She is active in both professional and community organizations, including Chair of Summit County’s Social Services Advisory Board; Board member and Immediate Past Chair of the Akron Roundtable and member of its Executive and Governance Committees; Board member and past Chair of Summit County Public Health and member of its Finance Committee; Board Chair of Cascade Capital Revolving Loan Fund; Board member of Direction Home (Area Agency on Aging) and its Finance and Quality Committees; Board member of OPEN M and its Executive Committee; member of Cleveland Clinic Akron General Community Advisory Council; past Board member of Leadership Akron and current member of the Strategic Planning Committee; member of the Girl Scouts of North East Ohio Audit Committee and former member of the Board; member of the Summit County Family & Children First Council and its Executive Committee; past Board member of Stewarts Caring Place and Portage Path Behavioral Health; past Board and Executive Committee member of the Greater Akron Chamber and Blossom Music Center Board of Overseers as well as Past President of the Board of Directors of the Kent State University (KSU) National Alumni Association. She has been a distinguished Commencement speaker at KSU and is a Certified Public Accountant in the State of Ohio.
Karen has received numerous awards, including the Woman of Note Award from Crain’s Cleveland Business; special award for eminence in a professional field by the Kent State Alumni Association; Northern Ohio Live’s Top Woman Rainmaker Award as one of the most influential business women in Northeast Ohio; Extraordinary Woman Award from the Akron Beacon Journal; public service award from the Ohio Society of Certified Public Accountants; Dorothy Royce Award for leadership and Governor’s Award for leadership from the Ohio Council for Home Care; Founders Medal of Honor from the Healthcare Financial Management Association; and the Carl I. Brahce Gerontology Service Award from The Gerontology Center, College of Continuing Studies, KSU. Most recently Karen was selected to receive the Impact Award from Northeast Ohio Boomer and Beyond Magazine.
Karen’s extraordinary achievements both in her career and in her community service alone would make her deserving of the Lieberth Community Vision Award. Given that she has accomplished all of this while standing out as both a loyal and a humble leader makes us proud to recognize Karen Talbott as the 9th recipient of the Lieberth Community Vision Award!