Caryn Ernst, Principal
Caryn Ernst is the Founder and Principal Consultant for Ernst Consulting. She has 30 years of experience working with nonprofits and their public sector partners in the areas of parks, urban greening, and climate and social justice. She and the diverse consultants she partners with provide strategic planning, change management, program design and evaluation services, as well as trainings and workshops for clients.
Caryn is a collaborative leader with a proven track record of effectively engaging historically marginalized communities, designing inclusive programs with equitable outcomes, and leading complex change processes with measurable results.
Background
As Director of Strategic Initiatives at City Parks Alliance, Caryn led the development of member capacity-building programs, strategic initiatives and partnerships. She curated content for CPA conferences, and researched and wrote numerous publications. Caryn created CPA’s workshops, designed to strengthen and expand park partnerships, and provided direct technical assistance to agencies and their nonprofit partners, addressing complex partnership challenges
As Director of Conservation Vision services at the Trust for Public Land, Caryn co-created TPL’s Greenprint program and led the national programs team implementing city, regional and watershed-wide conservation and park planning efforts around the U.S. She forecasted and secured revenue, scoped and budgeted new projects, and guided workshop planning and community outreach strategies for TPL’s Greenprint projects.
Caryn started her career as a community organizer and program manager in low-income communities of color in Pittsburgh, leading small grant programs in community development and youth and family programming.
She is a passionate public education advocate, and served on the DC Mayor’s Task Force for Cross-Sector Collaboration and as PTA President for a large, diverse public school. She led multiple advocacy campaigns to fund green schoolyards and infrastructure improvements for neighborhood public schools.
Strategic insights
Collaborative approaches
Grounded implementation