Karen is a farmer and activist. She is Co-owner/Farmer at Rise & Root Farm in Chester New York. In 2010, Co- Founded Black Urban Growers (BUGS) an organization supporting growers in both urban and rural settings. Karen has received numerous awards most recently the 2024 Emerson Collective Fellowship, and co-recipient of the 2023 James Beard Humanitarian Award. She has also been credited with the term food apartheid instead of food desert, bringing to the forefront the inequities we have in the food system. Mama K as she is fondly known in the community, serves on the boards of the New York Botanical Gardens, Black Farmer Fund, Soul Fire Farm, the Mary Mitchell Center, and Green Workers Cooperative.