Santa Fe Institute

Bio

Karen Heim-Amadon grew up on a large family farm in Iowa. Her entrepreneurial spirit, curiosity and desire to further her education drew her to New York City, where she attended Westchester College.  After working in the fashion industry and attending college, Karen and her partners opened a real estate rental company and, later, a real estate sales company. Her real-estate career spanned 15 years beginning in the early 1990's as a young entrepreneur with Real Renters LTD, and later a building sales firm Heim Realty LLC.  During the years of the Internet boom as an angel investor, Karen and her associates garnered critical acclaim when they wired the first residential building Manhattan with T1 Internet access at a time when dial up service was still in its infancy.  The East Village T1 project garnered international attention when Reuters wrote the first article before a press release was even out, followed by CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, New York Times, and a phone call from Vice President Gore's office. Karen moved to Seattle and Aspen in 2007 and has been active philanthropically with the Aspen Institute, the NGO Room to Read, the Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences (SAAS), and Landessa (RDI).