Released: February 4, 2008

Commissioner of Insurance Jim Donelon has appointed Karen Reiners Winfrey as Deputy Commissioner of the Department’s Office of Health Insurance.

Commissioner Donelon says he is delighted to bring Winfrey on board. “Due to her broad work experience as my staff attorney when I was chairman of the House Insurance Committee and her service with the Department of Labor, Karen will be a valued addition to our Department,” Donelon says.

From February 2004 to the present, Winfrey has served as Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco’s appointee as the assistant Secretary of Labor with the Office of Workers’ Compensation Administration to run the Louisiana Workers’ Compensation System. There she administered the Workers’ Compensation Court, regulated self-insured employers, oversaw the Workers’ Compensation Second Injury Fund, and administered the Fraud, OSHA Consultation and Medical Services Units, among other responsibilities.

From 2000 to early 2004, Winfrey was an assistant Attorney General assigned as general counsel to the Louisiana Department of Labor, Office of Workers’ Compensation Administration. Prior to that, she spent one year as legal counsel to Principal Management, Inc., a managing general agent of surplus lines insurance carriers.

Winfrey was an assistant Attorney General assigned as executive legal counsel to the Louisiana Secretary of Labor from 1997-1999, where she advised the Secretary on unemployment law, workers’ compensation law, job training programs and other labor-related issues.

During her four years as staff attorney for the Louisiana House of Representatives Committee on Insurance, Winfrey drafted legislation relative to health insurance, policy requirements, insurer solvency and guaranty laws, life insurance, workers’ compensation, accident insurance, property and casualty insurance, and insurance rate regulation.

“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Commissioner Donelon again,” Winfrey adds.

A native of Acadia Parish, Winfrey received her Juris Doctor in 1991 from the Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans and her B.A. in English from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 1988.

Former Deputy Commissioner of Health Insurance Scott Kipper vacated the position in December 2007 when he was named Administrator (Commissioner of Insurance) of Oregon's Insurance Division.