Karen May

With a background in art, environmental studies, and political theory, Karen brings a diverse array of experiences to her work in landscape architecture practice and pedagogy. Prior to her admission into the Built Environment PhD program at the University of Washington, Karen worked as both adjunct and full-time faculty at various institutions in Canada and the US. She held a Visiting Teaching Assistant Professor position at the University of Illinois (2023-2024), as well as various adjunct positions teaching everything from visual communication and representation, to theory, ecology, studios in site scale and urban design (2015-2023). Concurrent with her teaching, Karen worked as a landscape architect and practice lead in ecology at Plant Architect (2017-2023) in Toronto, Ontario. Prior to that, she held positions in communications, cartography, and graphic design for various environmental non-profits around land-use policy and conservation (including the Greenbelt Foundation and Carolinian Canada Coalition). She also spent two years (2015-2016) as a post-graduate Design and Research fellow at the Coastal Sustainability Studio (CSS) at Louisiana State University. Her work at CSS included design leadership on the production of visualizations for public outreach materials, as well as for a permanent exhibit at the Center for River Studies in Baton Rouge on the topic of coastal land loss and environmental change in south Louisiana.

Karen is a member of the group Design Climate Action, an organization of allied professionals from various design disciplines (largely working in the Toronto area) committed to re-shaping the profession’s response to climate change. Karen’s research and teaching interests include advocacy as a creative practice with a focus on visual communication, how different modes of design representation relate to public discourse and rhetoric around environmental issues such as ecological restoration, climate change, adaptation, and the role of narrative in design; how we read, understand, and disseminate knowledge about environmental phenomena. Her experience in practice, teaching, and research includes planting and restoration, site and urban design, ecological design, landscape representation, mapping and visualization, as well as gallery and site-specific art installations. Karen has exhibited design work in group shows at both the Larry Wayne Richards Gallery and Gladstone Hotel in Toronto.