Karen Kitsis joined the Connecticut Department of Transportation in June 2023 as Deputy Commissioner. Karen’s portfolio focuses on project development and delivery, sustainability and resiliency, public transportation, strategic planning, and advancing the department’s equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts. Prior to this position, she served as the Deputy Executive Director for Capital Project Development at Sound Transit in Seattle, Washington. Karen has also worked at two other transit agencies in Virginia and in consulting in the southeast. Karen holds a Masters Degree in Urban Planning from UCLA and is a certified planner through the American Planning Association.

Karen is married and has a middle-school age daughter, both from Washington State. She enjoys going to a baseball game, hiking, grabbing a great meal with friends, movies, traveling anywhere, watch Grand Slam tennis, or go kayaking.