Karen is the Climate Change Lead for the Water group in the New York Metro at AECOM where she oversees the Extreme Weather Initiative for the region. With more than 25 years of experience, Karen manages multidisciplinary teams that develop strategic solutions for the planning, design, and construction of complex infrastructure projects, focusing on climate adaptation. Working across the engineering, ecology, and landscape architecture fields, she specializes in employing a comprehensive approach to integrating resilient and sustainable elements for both coastal and inland projects. Currently, Karen manages the Kissena Park Cloudburst Hub, part of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection’s Cloudburst Program to implement innovative and adaptive methods of absorbing, storing, and transferring stormwater in flood-prone communities. She previously led Rebuild By Design – Hudson River for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the municipalities of Hoboken, Jersey City, and Weehawken, New Jersey, to design and construct a coastal flood risk reduction project that secured a more resilient future for one of the country’s densest and most transit-oriented areas. Karen earned a Bachelor of Science in agricultural and biological engineering from Cornell University with a concentration in environmental systems engineering, and a graduate certificate in water resources engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology.