Karen Zilliox Brown

November 19, 2020

Karen received her B.S. in Wildlife Conservation from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and an M.S. in Forestry from the University of Florida. Karen joined the Longleaf Alliance in 2012 on the Ecosystem Support Team before becoming the Technical Assistance & Training Specialist in 2016. She grew up in Oklahoma with a love of the outdoors and for the environment, but it was only after college that wildland fire perked her interest. This pursuit, and a thirst for new experiences, took her across the country. Karen served on fire suppression modules with the National Park Service at Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park, was a crew leader with the Bureau of Land Management at Fort Ord, as well as spending a season marking timber in northern California for private industry. An interest in prescribed fire brought her to the southeast, by way of The Nature Conservancy’s Charleston Field Office in 2009, and she received her introduction to the longleaf pine ecosystem. From there, a passion for longleaf conservation and ecology began. Karen now lives in Sumter, SC with her husband, their daughter, and their two dogs.