Karen Votava

KAREN VOTAVA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Karen Votava is one of the founders of the East Coast Greenway, serving as chair of the initial Advisory Committee before the East Coast Greenway Alliance was formally incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Prior to that, she spent sixteen years as Director of Open Space Planning for the New York City Department of City Planning, where one of her accomplishments was authoring "A Greenway Plan for New York City," a blueprint for 350 miles of greenway trails within NYC. Karen was also co-founder and Board Member of the Prospect Park Environmental Center in Brooklyn, NY, which provides urban environmental education programs for schoolchildren and the public. She has taught a course on park and recreation planning in the Graduate School of Leisure Studies at New York University, and has lectured on open space, greenways, and bicycle transportation. She holds a BA from Douglass College and a Masters of City Planning from Yale University.