Karen Bermann is professor emerita of architecture at Iowa State University, where she specialized in beginning design, drawing, and teaching in the Rome study abroad program. Prior to earning a Bachelor of Architecture at The Cooper Union, she worked on sweat equity rehabilitation on the Lower East Side in the building which first brought solar and wind energy to New York City.

Among her awards are a first prize in the African Burial Ground Memorial Competition in New York City, the 6th Annual Visionary Landscape Competition Award (both with Jeanine Centuori) and Best Design Article in the Journal of Architectural Education. She has published in academic journals on the topics of identity, memory, and place. She grew up in Brooklyn and Queens and lives in Rome.