Karolee and her husband have owned and operated mixed farming and fine/super fine wool properties in rural New South Wales, outback Queensland and regional Victoria since arriving in Australia from the United States with their two young children in 1974.

Within the Australian community, Karolee was a Queensland Councillor for the Isolated Children's Parents' Association (ICPA), initiated and was the founding Chairman for a small rural telecentre in Victoria; is the Treasurer for Community Tele-Services Australia; and is a Member of the Board for the International Association for Community Tele-Service Centres (CTSA International).

Karolee attended the first International Conference for Women in Agriculture in Melbourne and the 2nd International Conference for Women in Agriculture in Washington, DC. The Spanish Government has recently appointed Karolee to their Host Committee for the III World Congress on Rural Women that is to be held in Madrid Spain on 2-4 October 2002. She is working with the other National Rural Women's Organizations to ensure that Australia's participation at this third International Conference has positive outcomes for Australian Rural Women and their industries.

She attended, as the only Australian Rural Representative, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Women Leaders' Network Meeting in New Zealand in 1999, and attended, and spoke at the APEC Women Leaders' Network Meeting in Brunei Darussalam in 2000, and was, once again, the only Australian Rural Representative. Karolee attended the UN Commission on the Status of Women Session in March 2000 in New York and the UN Beijing +5 Meeting in June 2000 in New York.

Karolee is the International Activities Reference Group Coordinator for Australian Women in Agriculture (AWiA) and was recently elected the New South Wales Representative for AWiA.