Full Name: Kara Morris
Current Title & Company: Associate, Mergers & Acquisitions Tax, KPMG
Brief description of who you are professionally with concise accomplishments:
I am a lawyer who does tax due diligence and transactional analysis. I graduated from law school with J.D. and LL.M. (Master of Laws in taxation) degrees this past May. Prior to law school, I worked at National Grid as an engineer and a project manager. As a project manager, I was responsible for the company’s New England and System-level Emergency Response Plans, which are updated and filed with the Massachusetts regulator each May.
Why did you join Tomorrow’s Women Today and what are you hoping to achieve as a member of the organization?
I joined TWT several years ago to befriend, learn from and be inspired by women who are leaders in their professional fields. As a member, I am hoping to grow as a professional and as a person and to contribute to others’ growth. I have been to several TWT events over the past few years and have been inspired by both TWT speakers and my TWT peers.
What is one of your most proud professional moments and what are you most looking forward to professionally in the next five years?
I am most proud of my work as a project manager at National Grid. After about a year in the Emergency Planning department, I became responsible for two of the company’s Emergency Response Plans, which required me to update the Plans and train 200-300 employees annually on how to coordinate during storms events. I came up with a training program that made my colleagues laugh and ultimately changed the way storm response leadership coordinated during storms.
What do you do in your “free” time? Hobbies, interests…
In my free time, I train for triathlons, raise money for the Pan-Mass Challenge and plan for Christmas in the City’s annual job fair, which I founded four years ago. I am proud of our job fair because we make it more accessible by telling job seekers which employers are CORI-friendly and which accept ESL candidates. The event is also 100% volunteer-run and we invite many local organizations, including homeless shelters and veterans groups, to participate as job seekers.
3 Core Values:
- Community: I believe happiness is dependent on community, so bringing people together is an important part of my life.
- Hard work: I love being busy and growing through my work.
- Perspective & Compassion: I have a practice of meditating on being more compassionate and I believe perspective contributes substantially to one’s ability to be compassionate.