Uncrowned Community Builders

Karen Stanley Fleming is the owner and Managing Consultant for Key Success Factors Consulting in Buffalo, which provides strategic planning and fund development services for non-profit agencies as well as financial management for small businesses. Serving clients since 2010, Karen launched her consulting group after serving as Director of Urban Affairs for Mayor Byron W. Brown at the City of Buffalo where she garnered almost $20 million in grants and contracts from federal and state agencies.


Prior to moving to Buffalo, Karen was Vice President of Finance and Marketing at Stanley Construction Company in Huntsville, AL, and she continues to serve as the CFO of the family-owned business which has operated in North Alabama since 1961. The company has received national, state and local acclaim, most especially when Company President, Thornton Stanley was awarded the U.S. Small Business Administration National Small Business Person of the Year in 2001. President George W. Bush presented the award in a White House ceremony. In the family business, Karen provides financial analysis, leads strategic planning processes and optimizes the capital structure for this excavating and paving contractor, which employs just under 50 people. Prior to returning to the family business in 1995, she worked for Cabot Plastiques in Brussels, Belgium, Monsanto Chemicals Company, St. Louis, American Express Company, New York, and Rohm and Haas Chemicals in Bristol, Pennsylvania.


Through her consulting firm, Key Success Factors, Karen not only leads strategic planning exercises for non-profits but also guides them through the plan implementation and associated organizational development and leadership training. Some of her local clients who have built capacity and expanded their programming based on her input include the Restore Our Community Coalition, the Willie Hutch Jones Educational and Sports Programs and the True Bethel Community Development Corporation.


Ms. Stanley Fleming earned an MBA from Harvard University's School of Business, MS degree in Chemical Engineering Practice from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and BE, magna cum laude in chemical engineering from Vanderbilt University. In service to her alma mater, Karen is chair of the Vanderbilt University Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering External Advisory Board. She is also very committed to supporting Alabama A&M University, the alma mater of both of her parents, where she has served on capital campaigns, and co-chaired the drive to send the Marching Maroon and White band to the 2006 Tournament of Roses Parade.


Long dedicated to community service, she is Immediate Past Chair of the Michigan Street African American Heritage Corridor Commission, appointed by Governor Paterson to guide the future of the focal point for Buffalo's African American History. She also serves on the First Shiloh Youth Foundation and Just Buffalo Board of Directors. She is past President of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Buffalo Alumnae Chapter, a professional women's public service sorority making a difference locally through the coordinated volunteer work of over 100 women as one of over 900 international chapters. She has also served as Vice President of the Erie County Chapter of The Links, Incorporated and a member of the board of directors for Community Health Center of Buffalo.


Ms. Stanley Fleming is a servant leader no matter where the locale. Her service in Alabama included an appointment by Alabama Governor Bob Riley to the Citizen's Commission for Constitutional Reform, a mayoral appointment to the Huntsville Board of Zoning Adjustments, Vice-Chair for Small Business and Chair of the Women's Business Council at the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce, member of the First Commercial Bank Advisory Board, Chair of the Influence Building Political Committee of the Women's Economic Development Council, Chair of the Alabama A&M School of Business Advisory Board, and Chair of the 2005 City of Huntsville District 5 Bicentennial Celebration.

Her hobbies include playing the piano and attending ballet, symphony, and jazz concerts. She is a member of First Shiloh Baptist Church, where she is active with the youth ministry. The oldest of 4 adult children of Thornton and Mary Stanley, Karen takes pride and joy in her 5 nephews and 4 nieces, and she is married to Dr. Rick L. Fleming, Director of Bands at SUNY Buffalo State. Karen credits God and family with her educational, professional and community achievements.