Karam Sheban

Karam Sheban is a 4th-year PhD candidate at the Yale School of the Environment. Born in the West Bank in Palestine and raised in Ohio, Karam graduated from The Ohio State University with a degree in Environmental Policy in 2014. He spent three years after college as an AmeriCorps volunteer at Rural Action, a community development organization in Appalachian Ohio, working with communities, farmers, landowners, and other organizations to develop agroforestry systems as a source of income, environmental restoration, and cultural revitalization in the region.

He received a masters in forestry from the Yale School of the Environment in 2020, returned to Ohio to direct Rural Action’s Sustainable Forestry program for a few years, and then began his PhD studies at Yale. In his academic work, Karam draws on the science of forest and ecosystem ecology, horticulture, silviculture, and ethnobotany to quantify the impacts of temperate agroforestry systems, with an emphasis on building pathways from high-quality science to effective policy to support agroforestry adoption. In addition to his studies, in 2021 he co-founded the Northeast Forest Farmers Coalition, an organization that provides training, mentorship, funding, market connections, and other resources to agroforestry adopters in the Northeast United States. This work supports a wide range of practitioners, from multi-generational farms to independent herbalists, Indigenous tribes and tribal members, small businesses, and immigrant and first-generation communities in the region.

While Karam’s work is rooted in the Northeast US, it’s informed by experience with plant-based practice from around the world, from Appalachia to the Middle East, Europe, and South America. He sees his work as part of a larger reimagining of our agricultural and forested landscapes for a more just and equitable world.