Karen Jungblut serves as the Advisor and Manager of the Civil Commission’s Archive, where she brings
more than 30 years of international experience in oral history, archival development, and testimony
documentation. In this role, she supports the design and implementation of the Commission’s archival
systems, advising on cataloguing frameworks, metadata structures, access policies, and long-term
archival planning in alignment with internationally recognized standards.

Karen holds the honorary title of Director Emerita of Global Initiatives at the USC Shoah Foundation, where
she served for 25 years in senior leadership positions. During her tenure, she oversaw the development of
the Visual History Archive’s indexing and cataloguing system and managed the team that indexed more
than 55,000 survivor and witness testimonies. She produced the initial Dimensions in Testimony
interactive and 360° on-location testimony projects and led the expansion of the archive to include
testimonies from other genocides and contemporary conflicts, including Rohingya refugees. Her work
shaped global access, preservation strategy, and content development across multilingual and
multidisciplinary teams.

In addition to her role at the Commission, Karen contributes independently to select international
storytelling and testimony-based initiatives. She holds an M.A. in Political Science from Freie Universität
Berlin and a B.A. in History and International Affairs from Hunter College, CUNY.