Karina Tipton, CE’99

Karina Tipton graduated from the Cooper Union Engineering School in 1999.  While in school, she was an editor of The Cooper Union Pioneer. She works as an Environmental Engineer. She earned an MS in Environmental Engineering with a concentration in Green and Sustainable Design from Carnegie Mellon University in 2005. She co-founded and writes for the blog Tiny Choices, where her posts concentrate on critical analysis of the environmental impact of everyday individual decisions. Ms. Tipton is a P.E. and a LEED AP BD+C.

Karina became a CUAA Council member in 2006.  She chaired the CUAA Communications Committee for 6 years.  Under her leadership, the CUAlumni.com website content was greatly expanded to include more news items about alumni.  The web hosting was transferred from Harris, a firm that charged for every web edit, to iModules which allowed both members of the Alumni Affairs Staff and Alumni volunteers on the CUAA Communications committee to create new content and post it on the website without assistance from iModules.  This allowed more frequent updating and an expansion of services to the alumni.  For the first time, alumni were able to sign in on a secure site, to search an on-line alumni directory.  They were also able to purchase on-line items from the school store and make donations to The Cooper Union using a credit card.  Karina was also an advocate of using Social Media to communicate quickly with Alumni.  The CUAA FaceBook page was launched ion 2009.

In 2011, Karina helped form the group Friends of The Cooper Union and moderated the first Forum in the Great Hall following the October 2011 announcement that The Cooper Union was in financial trouble.

In 2011, Karina was received the Young Alumnus of The year award.  At that time, Karina Tipton CE’99 was a Senior Engineer with Brown and Caldwell, providing proactive solutions to environmental problems using sustainable practices.  She feels strongly about community building and process-based actions. She is the Co-Chair of the Editorial Committee, which was integral in this year’s launching of the new CUAA website, and serves on the Events Committee and Alumni Council

Karina Tipton was chosen as The Young Alumna of the Year in 2011 and the Alumna of the Year in 2013. The 2013 Founder’s Day Celebration was held at Guastavino’s, an impressive space that is inspiring in the beauty of the functional fireproof tile ceilings that make up the underside of the 59th Street Bridge.

Karina Tipton being presented the Young Alumna of the Year Award by CUAA President, MaryAnn Nichols during the 2011 Founder’s Day Celebration at the Roosevelt Hotel.

Karina Tipton and Mina Greenstein at 2013 Founder’s Day Celebration

View Where would you be without Cooper video staring Karina Tipton. Link

Photos from 2013 Founder’s Day celebration Link