Karrah (Miller) Herring is a native and resident of South Bend, Indiana, and a proud South Bend Community School Corporation graduate. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Communications/Public Relations from Purdue University (’05) and her Juris Doctorate from Valparaiso University School of Law (’11). On November 19, 2020, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb announced his appointment of Herring to his cabinet as Indiana’s first-ever Chief Equity, Inclusion, and Opportunity Officer for the state. In this role, she works with the governor and his team to improve state government operations and remove hurdles in the government workplace and services the state provides. During the foundational phase of the office, Herring engaged with over 300 stakeholders, built the infrastructure of the office, and in conjunction with other agencies rolled out the state of Indiana's first-ever Equity Data Portal. Her team focuses on growing statewide access and opportunity in education and economic development and enhancing employee experiences within the Indiana state government’s executive branch.
Before joining Governor Holcomb's team, Herring worked for the University of Notre Dame for nearly a decade and was the director of public affairs in the Office of Public Affairs and Communications. Before her role with public affairs, she served on the University of Notre Dame’s Office of Human Resources Senior Executive Leadership team as the director of the Office of Institutional Equity and University Title IX Coordinator.
Herring has received several awards and recognition and serves on various boards and commissions. Most recently, Mayor James Mueller of the City of South Bend, Indiana, honored her with the “Key to the City.” Her alma mater, Purdue University, honored her as a 2022 College of Liberal Arts Distinguished Alumna. She was named to the Indianapolis Business Journal’s prestigious 2022 Forty Leaders under 40 list and its inaugural 250 most influential leaders 2022. In 2021, the South Bend Regional Chamber named her their 2021 Woman of Influence. In October of 2021, the chief justice of the Indiana Supreme Court, Justice Rush, asked Herring to serve as the executive branch’s representative on the Indiana Supreme Court’s Commission on Equity and Access within Indiana Courts. She served on the commission and chaired the subcommittee within the commission, which examined pathways to the legal profession’s bench and bar for historically underrepresented groups. Herring is also a member of the Center for Digital Government’s Digital Equity Advisory Committee, the NASHP Population and Public Health Steering Committee, a member of the Board of Governors for the Indiana Economic Club, and a member of the Board of Directors for Sunz Insurance and Sunz Holdings LLC (Bradenton, Florida).