Karen Irene Kalergis

Karen Irene Kalergis began her work in victim services in 1991 as the Director of the Texas Crime Victim Clearinghouse in the Office of Governor Ann Richards. Ms. Kalergis formed several strategic partnerships to ensure passage and implementation of needed crime victims’ rights legislation. 

She worked with the Texas District and County Attorneys Association and system-based advocates to create templates to meet the requirement for victims to receive written notice of their rights. Ms. Kalergis initiated discussions that led to the creation of the state crisis consortium, which married victim assistance and emergency management, and delivered training statewide on how victim services could work together with first responders. She also participated in efforts and co-wrote curriculums for mass casualty responses by Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the National Association of Crime Victim Compensation Boards. 

In 1994, Ms. Kalergis organized the first Texas crime victim rights summit to address challenges to affording victim rights. In 2012, she formed the “Advancing Victim Rights in Texas” working group and is a founding member and former president of the Texas Victim Services Association (TVSA). While with the Texas Attorney General’s Crime Victims’ Institute, Ms. Kalergis coordinated the first research-to-practice symposium. 

When OVC introduced the concept of State Victim Assistance Academies (SVAA), she wrote the grant that made Texas one of the first five states to create an SVAA. As a member of TVSA, she has worked to sustain the SVAA beyond OVC funding, offering basic academies in 2008 and 2010, and an advanced academy in 2013. For the past 3 years, she has served as the SVAA Training Technical Assistance Consultant. As testimony to her ability to help build capacity in the field, she has been called on to revise Victim Assistance Training Online and teach an Ultimate Trainer class. 

In preparation for the Texas 30th anniversary of victim rights in 2015, Ms. Kalergis is leading the effort by the Texas Advancing Victim Rights working group to conduct a series of community summits, which will provide victim service providers and criminal justice professionals with tools to assess their ability to ensure a victim’s right to be informed, present, and heard. Her focus over the past 5 years has been working with OVC and OVC TTAC to develop training and technical assistance materials for child abuse organizations to use to build resiliency in their staff.