Karen Pfeifer is beginning her third year as associate athletics director for student-athlete welfare and senior woman administrator at Kennesaw State after being promoted to the position in July of 2011. She joined the Department of Athletics as director of sports medicine in 2002.
In her current role, Pfeifer oversees student-athlete welfare, which includes the supervision of sports medicine, strength and conditioning, the drug and alcohol program, student-athlete leadership and life skills education and the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). She also is the program administrator for soccer, softball and men's and women's tennis. As the SWA, she is the Kennesaw State University Athletic Association’s point person for Title IX and gender equity issues.
While serving as the director of sports medicine, Pfeifer was the men’s basketball athletic trainer from 2002-2011 and was with the team when it won its 2004 Division II national championship. During her tenure in sports medicine, Pfeifer spent time with each of the Owls athletics teams.
Pfiefer came to Kennesaw State after working in the sports medicine office at Life University where she part of the women's basketball team that made it to the elite eight of the NAIA national tournament. She also tended to the training needs of the cross country and track and field national championship teams. Pfeifer also spent time as an athletic trainer at Robert Morris.
Between her stints as a college athletic trainer, she worked as an outreach athletic trainer for St. Vincent’s Sports Medicine and as a research assistant for the Orthopedics Indianapolis Spine surgeons in Indianapolis, Ind. As the research assistant, she conducted FDA sponsored studies and assisted the OrthoIndy surgeons with the writing of their medical research papers.
Pfeifer holds a master’s degree in sports medicine from the University of Pittsburgh. She received a bachelor’s degree in physical education / athletic training from the State University of New York at Cortland, as well as a bachelor’s degree in the kinesiological sciences from the University of Maryland. The first team that she ever worked with as a student athletic trainer at SUNY Cortland was the Division III national champion field hockey team.
In addition to her work with the Kennesaw State student-athletes, Pfeifer is the current sports medicine coordinator for the Georgia Games Championships. As the GA Games medical coordinator, she works with medical professionals from across the state and has covered boxing, roller hockey, track & field, tae kwon do and basketball over the past 12 years. She also has served as the medical director for the “Run for Life” 5k/10k races for the past 10 years.
Pfeifer organized and served as a speaker at the continuing education symposium sponsored jointly by the Georgia Athletic Trainers Association and the Georgia State Games Commission. She also served as an examiner for the National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA) Board of Certification from 2000-2006. As a member of the KSU professional community, she serves on the Athletic Board and its executive committee in addition to acting as a mentor for the graduate assistant athletic trainers from Georgia State.
Pfeifer received the NATA’s William F.X. Linksey Scholarship Award, the New York State Athletic Trainers' Association Buffalo Bills Football Club Scholarship and was a Sears Directors' Cup Postgraduate Scholarship finalist.
A native of Pittsburgh, Pa., Pfeifer and her husband, Eric, have two children - daughter, Kyra (11) and son, Bryan (9) - and reside in Kennesaw, Ga.
