Karen P. Fernbach, is the Regional Director of Region 2, the Manhattan Region. As Regional Director, she is responsible for the enforcement of the nation's primary labor law covering private sector employees in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx in New York City, and Orange, Putnam, Rockland, and Westchester counties in New York.
She graduated from SUNY Albany in 1973 with a BA degree where she majored in American History. She then attended St. John's University School of Law where she served as a member of the St. John's Law Review. Upon graduation in 1977, Karen began her career as a field attorney in the Manhattan Region of the NLRB until her promotion to the position of Supervisory Attorney in 1985. In 1988, she was promoted to the Regional Attorney position in Manhattan and became the Regional Director in January, 2012.
Karen is an active member of the Labor & Employment Section of the New York State Bar Association, a liaison member of the Labor & Employment Section of the NYC Bar Association, a faculty member of PLI, on the Executive Board of the Labor & Employment Center at St. John's, and also on the Executive Boards of Cornell ILR, Labor & Employment Law Program, & the Labor & Employment Center of NYU School of Law. As Regional Director, she has been a speaker and panelist at many labor law conferences and programs. Throughout her career, she has also served on many National Committees of the NLRB including the Quality Committee and Best Practices Committee. She is a member of the Federal Executive Board and has served as a volunteer mediator for federal employee EEO work place disputes. She has also taught at the Cornell ILR Institute and is currently an Adjunct Professor at St. John's University School of Law where she teaches Labor Law, Advanced Labor Law, and Labor & Employment Arbitration.