Karen Bouris

Background

About Karen Bouris

Karen's focus is on implementation and innovation around Belonging, Bridging and Targeted Universalism, particularly how they are embedded in relationships, structures, institutions, technologies, and culture. At Seed Collaborative, she does this through programs, strategic partnerships and with clients.Karen’s work has always touched on the human condition, including justice, women’s issues, spirituality, the arts, and our living planet. This has coalesced into a commitment to belonging work. Prior to Seed, she was a Senior Advisor at the Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley (OBI), co-directing CEOs Advancing Racial Equity & Belonging program, supporting the principals, john a. powell, and PolicyLink’s Dr. Michael McAfee and Angela Glover Blackwell. Karen has been a cross-sector belonging consultant to orgs, such as [Google's] X, the Hewlett Foundation, and Co-Impact.Previous roles include being a Founding Exec Dir for a nonprofit focused on food system + climate change. She developed strategies to pivot toward climate-friendly ag and food, supporting state and federal policy, identifying racial health disparities in school lunches, building campaigns, conducting race and equity audits, and initiating strategic partnerships with Sierra Club, Climate Nexus, and others. She was also Founding Exec Dir at the Merwin Conservancy, an arts & environmental sanctuary, where she completed a scientific palm cataloging, laying the groundwork for an educational program with Hawaii school system, launched The Green Room, a literary, arts and environment series, produced a documentary on W.S. Merwin, developed national partnerships, and established an endowment.Karen’s work has also circled around content, ranging from magazine and book publishing to keynotes and digital assets. As Editor in Chief at Spirituality & Health magazine, she stressed the intersection of spirituality, social justice, and the environment, elevating leaders such as Joy Harjo, Bishop Desmond Tutu, and Robin Wall Kimmerer. As a Publisher at Inner Ocean, she launched the 50 Ways…book series, with 50 Ways to Love Your Country, a NYT bestseller by Moveon.org, 50 Ways to Improve Women’s Lives, 50 Ways to Support LGBTQ Equality. Back in the day, she also ran a content co. working with start-ups on white papers and content, with clients such as iVillage, Peoplesoft, Healthshop, and Women.com. A graduate of UC Berkeley, Karen has served on multiple boards and is a recent graduate of the Strozzi Embodied Leadership program.