At the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO), Karen Zuccardi is a leader in innovation. As TEDCO’s ecosystem director, she deploys early-stage capital and fosters technology growth across the state, working in fields from biotech to artificial intelligence. Earlier this year, the 2019 alumna of the Clinton School of Public Service traded her boardroom for military barracks.
At an age when many of her peers are focused solely on family and career acceleration, Zuccardi fulfilled a lifelong dream by joining the military. After completing basic training and tech school this summer in San Antonio, and Shepherd, Texas, she is now an Airman First Class in the Air National Guard.
For Zuccardi, who immigrated to the U.S. from Bogotá, Colombia, her service is the ultimate expression of gratitude.
“America has been a good home to me and my family,” she said. “I wanted to give back to America. What better way to give back than serving in the military?”
A New Trajectory at the Clinton School
Before her success in venture capital and her military service, Zuccardi’s career underwent a fundamental shift at the Clinton School. With an undergraduate degree in international economics and years spent in corporate life, she was looking for a new direction when she was introduced to the Master of Public Service program.
“Going to the Clinton School changed my life. It changed the trajectory of my career,” she said. “I am where I am meant to be because of the Clinton School.”
Zuccardi identified the pivotal moment as discovering social entrepreneurship through one of her Clinton School courses.
“I fell in love with the idea because of my desire to serve others,” she said. “I found the perfect opportunity to utilize my business skills to help people and communities.”
This new focus led her to a key internship at Winrock International and informed her public service work. As a student, Zuccardi completed her Capstone project by developing a logic model for a sustainable restaurant initiative that included interviewing more than 50 restaurant owners. This successful project was later adopted by the City of Little Rock as the Swing into Action program in 2022.
The certification initiative recognizes restaurants that complete the requirements for three tiers of certification. Completion of a tier level earns restaurants recognition, free marketing, and displays of certification. Zuccardi continued that work through several years of serving on the Little Rock Sustainability Commission, and she was the first Latina elected to serve as chair of the commission.
Earning the Badge of Resilience
With a solid career at TEDCO and a happy marriage to her husband Sean in 2021, Zuccardi’s cousin, who serves in the military, encouraged her to join. Figuring that she’d never find a better time to follow through on her dream, Zuccardi began the process to join the Air National Guard in 2023. She was accepted in 2024 and completed her basic training at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas. She did her tech school training in Shepherd, Texas, in munitions systems. Basic training, she admits, was one of the hardest challenges of her life.
“I’m not 18 or 20 like most of these other women. I was older than them,” she said. “I used to cry for the first three weeks, and I even thought it was the worst decision of my life.”
She applied the same determination that helped her navigate a new country and a new career path. She would get up early to memorize information and seek out the best recruits to help her improve her skills during downtime on Sundays.
“Slowly, I became faster, I did more pushups and sit-ups,” Zuccardi said. “I improved so much that my flight voted for me to be the most improved trainee out of my flight of 54, and I carry that badge with pride. You would be surprised, when life puts you in a challenging space, how strong you can really be.”
Service as Strategic Leadership
Zuccardi brings that sharpened leadership and discipline directly back to her work fostering Maryland’s innovation ecosystem.
“I’m bringing that skillset back into my work at TEDCO and Maryland’s innovation ecosystem with renewed focus, sharper resilience, and a deeper sense of service,” Zuccardi said.
Her journey stands as an inspiring example of how military experience translates powerfully into public leadership. This ideal aligns with the Clinton School’s commitment to veterans and military-connected families through the Service to Service initiative, a new program designed to transition the invaluable skills of service members into civilian public sector careers.
While Zuccardi spent her first Veterans Day as a service member attending a school ceremony with her proud nephew, she knows that service is a commitment she has made without an expiration date.
“I’m ready to serve, in uniform and out of it, with gratitude for this journey and excitement for what’s next,” she said.
This is so amazing!