Cr Karen Stephens was elected to the Glenelg Shire Council in March 2002 and served as Mayor in 2004/2005 and 2012/2013.
Cr Stephens is married to Owen Stephens, has six children and eight grandchildren. Cr Stephens has been a licensed Real Estate Agent since 1985 and commenced her own company when moving to Casterton in 1992.
Over the years Cr Stephens has been involved in several regionally significant projects - chairing the review by Australian National University of Land Use Change in the Green Triangle Region and Barwon South West Women's Forum for Climate Change and become an inaugural member in 2005 of the Green Triangle Freight Action Plan Implementation Committee and was Chair from 2016-2022 which during this period successfully advocated and achieved over $250mil for road funding in the region. Cr Stephens has been a member of the Glenelg Shire Audit and Risk Committee since 2005.
Cr Stephens is heavily involved in the Casterton community as a volunteer through a number of different organisations and is a founding member of the Casterton Kelpie Association. Karen has spent many years developing the now nationally and internationally renowned Australian Kelpie Muster which is held on the King's Birthday weekend each June and was a driving force behind the development of the now completed Australian Kelpie Centre in Casterton.
Current Councillor representative on the following external Committees:
Budj Bim Sustainable Development Partnership Leadership Group; Green Triangle Regional Plantation Committee; Green Triangle Region Freight Action Plan Implementation Planning Committee; National Timber Councils Taskforce Inc and President Timber Towns Victoria (Chair).
__PRESENT