KAREN STEELE

OFFICE MANAGER

karen@shelterinteriors.net

When contacting Shelter Interiors, it is Karen’s enthusiastic voice that greets. She enjoys the creative energy of working with the design team in their beautiful Bozeman studio. Karen has learned over years of experience that the best resource is communication, as Office Manager she dedicates this resource and skill to clients and also coworkers.

Karen began her education and career at the University of Colorado (CU) with a civil engineering degree focused on structural design. After many years of working in Colorado and California, she returned to CU to earn her Masters in Education in Math and Science Curriculum and Instruction. She poured her love of these subjects into her middle school, high school, and college-level classes. After moving to Bozeman in 2001, Montana State University stole her heart with hard-working, humble, motivated students. She even had some of her former middle school students show up in her math courses. Karen spent twenty years devoted to students in the math, university studies, mechanical engineering, and nursing departments as an adjunct faculty member and then as an academic advisor. In 2014, she was nominated by her students and recognized by the president as the Academic Advisor of the Year for her exceptional attention and passion for student service. Karen related the journey of guiding students to a declared major to a challenging puzzle in which many conversations were needed for feedback and adjustment. She now uses these communication skills and keen understanding of people to benefit Shelter Interiors in many capacities.

When not in the office, Karen is most likely found on trails, rivers, mountains, or in the grocery store. She and her husband are raising their two sons in Bozeman while instilling the love of the natural environment on every trip in which they embark, whether backpacking, running white-water, hiking mountains, skiing, biking, or floating Lego kayaks in a nearby creek. Although she claims to not be the most creative person, Karen can whip out any version of a knitted beanie hat or chocolate chip cookie.