Karen Abrams

Karen is an urban planner and strategist who works at the intersection of racial, spatial and climate justice. She collaborates with residents, municipalities, philanthropic entities and colleges and universities to disrupt and dismantle the interconnected policies and practices that perpetuate structural oppression. Karen has a passion for co-designing tools that engage, educate and promote community self-determination.

For over 15 years Karen served residents throughout the Pittsburgh, PA region in a variety of sectors. She was most recently the Director of City Planning where she oversaw Pittsburgh’s land use policies, neighborhood planning activities, public art and urban design projects as well as the City’s collaborative sustainability and resilience efforts at the local, national and international levels. During her directorship she secured $6 million for Pittsburgh’s first city-wide comprehensive plan, the first comprehensive plan in the United States explicitly rooted in the Just Transition framework. In other roles, Karen’s responsibilities included ensuring that disaffected residents of Pittsburgh’s historically Black neighborhoods were engaged in the real estate and economic development activities impacting their lives. While working in the philanthropic sector, she developed and implemented a range of grant-making strategies that supported Black-led nonprofits. This included making investments at the neighborhood-level and funding their city-wide and regional initiatives.

Networking and volunteering are integral to Karen’s professional philosophy and her commitment to the partners with whom she collaborates. She serves on the national advisory board for University of Virginia’s Equity Center. She is regular resource contributor to the Mayor’s Institute for City Design Just City Mayoral Fellowship at Harvard Graduate School of Design, and a mentor for MIT’s DesignX Program. Karen is a founding board member of The Chisholm Legacy Project, and served on the board until she stepped into her role as the Deputy Director of Programming with the organization in April 2024.

A native of Harlem, New York, and a lifelong learner, Karen earned a bachelor’s degree in African American and African Studies from the University of Virginia and a Master of Science degree in sustainable systems from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania. She also was awarded a Loeb Fellowship at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2016. In 2020 Karen established after abe, a micro-consultancy focused on discrete urban planning and design communications projects.