Karen Boykin-Towns serves as Vice Chair of the NAACP National Board of Directors and is the highest-ranking woman in the Association. Across a career spanning public service, corporate leadership, and social justice advocacy, she has worked to expand access to opportunity and ensure that more people have a voice in the decisions that affect their lives.

Boykin-Towns is a Diamond Life Member of the NAACP. Recruited by the late Dr. Hazel N. Dukes to rebuild the Brooklyn Branch, she served as its president for seven years. She went on to chair the NAACP's National Health Committee and was first elected Vice Chair in 2018.

As national chair of Women in NAACP (WIN), Boykin-Towns is reinvigorating WIN by supporting women in local NAACP units as they organize, mobilize voters, and use their collective influence to advance community priorities. She chairs the NAACP's Strategic Partnerships Task Group, which builds alliances to grow membership, develop leaders, and strengthen the political power of Black communities and other communities of color. She also chairs the NAACP Image Awards Committee and serves as an executive producer of the live telecast which celebrates Black achievement in entertainment, literature, and culture.

Boykin-Towns is President and CEO of Encore Strategies LLC, a strategic public affairs consulting firm, and a Senior Advisor at FGS Global. She serves on the boards of iFIT Health & Fitness, a global leader in connected fitness technology, and VNS Health, one of the nation's largest nonprofit home and community-based health care organizations.

Boykin-Towns retired from Pfizer in 2019 after 22 years in leadership roles spanning government relations, public policy, human resources, and corporate affairs. She was Pfizer's first Chief Diversity Officer and concluded her tenure as Vice President of Corporate Affairs for its $34 billion Innovative Medicines business. Before joining Pfizer, she served as chief of staff to then New York State Senator David Paterson and later held a leadership role with the New York State Senate Democratic Conference.

Boykin-Towns earned an MBA from Baruch College's Zicklin School of Business and a bachelor's degree from the University of Mount Saint Vincent. In 2025, Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York awarded her an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters in recognition of her career and commitment to service. She is a proud member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated.

She and her husband, Darryl C. Towns, are the proud parents of Jasmine and Trinity, both engineers and graduates of North Carolina A&T State University.