Karen Iglesia

Co-founder and Board Chair

Karen Iglesia was born in Jamaica and migrated here at 10 years old. Karen is a proud graduate of the RCSD, and holds a very special place in her heart for students living in the city. 

As an engineer, Karen started the Baden Street Settlement Pre-Engineering Program. This successful program was funded entirely by the Department of Transportation to expose more black and brown kids to STEM. This program resulted in 100% graduation rate from high school and 86% of students went on to college. 38% of the students went into STEM careers, including Pharmacy, Engineering and Architecture. These students attended colleges such as RPI, Clarkson and RIT. 

Karen was at Baden Street for 6 years as Director of Education and Pre-Engineering. She started Iglesia Tutoring, the largest minority owned and tutoring company in NYS, enrolling thousands of students each year. Iglesia Tutoring ran several summer programs while also tutoring students after school in locations from Buffalo to Syracuse.

Karen and Gerard started PrimeTime585, Inc. after several years as a basketball program, known as PrimeTime Ballers, and is one of the top basketball AAU programs in upstate New York.