The first Cornell women’s basketball player to score 1,000 points while still a junior, Karen Walker ’91 went on to set the Big Red’s all-time scoring record at 1,650 career points, a mark that stood for 26 years before being broken by Nia Marshall in 2017.
 
A Cornell Hall of Fame honoree, Walker was a three-time All-Ivy selection, earning first-team in 1991, after a second-team pick in 1990 and honorable mention selection in 1989. During her time on East Hill, she set Cornell single-game records for points (38 vs. Penn, 1990), field goals made (15 vs. Yale) and three-point field goals made (six). Walker also set season marks for three-point field goals made (37 in 1990), three-point field goal percentage (.439 in 1987-88) and 20-point games (10). In addition to the Cornell scoring record, she also set career standards for three-point field goals made (93), free throw percentage (.757), points per game average (16.3), and 20-point games (32).
 
A co-captain of the 1989-90 team, Walker graduated from Clarkstown South (N.Y.) High School, where she was a three-sport letter winner and tri-captain of her basketball team that won the conference A-1 championship.
 
Walker resides is Cobble Hill, Brooklyn with her husband of 18 years, Peter Strauss and their two children, Walker and Elsa. She also has two step-children Jett and Bailey and a daughter-in-law, Esther Sibiude.
 
Walker works as a Program Manager in Wealth Management Technology at Morgan Stanley.  Beyond her daily job activities, she regularly volunteers with MS sponsored charity events and is a member of Women in Technology and the Return to Work program, of which she is an alumnus.  She is also on the board of directors for the Dance Gallery Festival, a nonprofit organization that provides performance opportunities to up-and-coming choreographers and dance companies. In her spare time, she enjoys playing basketball and working out with the entire family.