Ithaca College

Karryn Olson(-Ramanujan), an Adjunct Faculty in the Environmental Studies and Sciences Department, has worked with students since 2010 to design, install, and maintain the permaculture garden near Williams Hall as a living classroom. On Fridays you may have seen her working with students there as part of her Gardens: Ecological Design and Practice course.

Karryn is moving on from her work at IC, and we wanted to share some highlights from her other impact as a long-term sustainability educator at IC. 

Karryn, a long-term Ecovillage resident, joined in the vibrant sustainability efforts of the Environmental Studies and Sciences Department in 2008, beginning her 4-year term serving as a co-coordinator of the Partnerships in Sustainability Education (PSE). PSE was funded starting in 2002 by a National Science Foundation grant obtained by Jason Hamilton and Susan Allen-Gil of ENVS and an interdisciplinary team of IC faculty and educators from the EcoVillage at Ithaca. PSE later morphed into the Committed to Change (C2C) initiative when it received an HSBC funding. Karryn co-led the 2012 Community Partners aspect of C2C.

Karryn also assisted in our efforts to train educators to incorporate Education for Sustainable Development into curricula and operations. In 2009, she joined Jason Hamilton and Susan Swensen as a project co-coordinator for the Finger Lakes Project,  and continued this work with Marian Brown after she adopted it at Wells College.

Karryn also taught many innovative courses at IC. As a co-founder of the Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute, Karryn taught the first Permaculture Design Certificate course at IC in 2008. Later courses included Practical Strategies for Sustainable Water Management, Principles and Practices for Sustainability, and Foundations of Permaculture. From 2010-2012, Karryn also developed and delivered the “Integrating sustainability into training and curriculum” online seminar in the Professional Certification in Sustainability Leadership.

Outside IC, Karryn is recognized for her efforts to improve the success of women working within the field of permaculture. As a result, she is now focusing on developing her businesss, Regenepreneurs. These courses and network support women who are “allergic to business as usual” but want to learn to use the tools of entrepreneurship to thrive in their work that regenerates ecosystems and communities.

Karryn also takes on a few clients per year for permaculture design consulting and coaching through her business SEED Sustainability Consulting.

The garden and the gardening course will be carried on my Anne Stork.