WBCM Scholarship Spotlight: Karen Timmons Brown

Karen Timmons Brown is an inspector for Information Providers, Inc., a recipient of the DRI Foundation’s Women in BCM Scholarship, and as a result, is working towards a certification with DRI International.  

What’s your professional background? How did you get here?

My career has evolved from nursing/healthcare to property liability inspections and audits. I have worked over 15 years in the health care and 10 years in the insurance industry, accumulating to 25 years in customer service. I have worked in numerous industries as a consultant.

What does DRI certification mean to your life?

The DRI certification would allow me to expand my area of knowledge in a growing field in which some groundwork has been done. It would be a benefit to add another line of consulting and assist businesses to plan for the unexpected, as we have seen the state of American businesses during COVID-19. I would like to help those businesses be more prepared to bounce back and continue offering their products and services.

What made you interested in business continuity?

I became interested in business continuity on my many field visits to companies and small businesses when I usually ask after an inspection – “What is your business continuity plan? What do you have in place for the what ifs?” I then provide various scenarios to see if perhaps they have a back up plan if anything catastrophic would happen. Would they rebuild? The answers would amaze you. So, during COVID-19 and before, I started researching the field of business continuity planning.

Do you have any life experience that makes this field especially compelling?

The life experience would be the field of work that I am currently in. Working in the insurance industry as the underwriter’s “eyes and ears”.