Lessons from the Pacific: A Q&A With Nik Karr (SPH’13)

Nik Karr (SPH’13), a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer and current project manager with The Nature Conservancy, has spent over a decade building climate resilience across the Pacific, from water systems in Vanuatu to restoring ecosystems Micronesia.

When Cyclone Gita swept through the Pacific island nation of Tonga in 2018, it was the strongest storm to hit the main island of Tongatapu in 60 years. Nik Karr was there as the director of programming and training for the Peace Corps, and watched the devastation unfold. In the weeks that followed, a group of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers from Tonga started Friends of Tonga, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting community-led resilience and recovery. Karr supported the organization’s recovery efforts and later joined its board as a special advisor.

Friends of Tonga was recently named one of five finalists for a 2026 .ORG Impact Award in the Environmental Stewardship category, a distinction that prompted Michael Hassett, Friends of Tonga president and co-founder, to specifically highlight Karr’s contributions.

“Nik has brought his public health expertise to Friends of Tonga’s mission of supporting community-led initiatives that strengthen environmental resilience, improve access to clean water, and promote healthier communities across Tonga,” wrote Hassett. “For a volunteer-run organization with no paid staff, this recognition reflects the dedication of professionals who volunteer their expertise in service of others. Nik’s leadership is an example of how Boston University alumni continue applying their education to improve lives and strengthen communities around the world.”

After earning his Master of Public Health in international health from BUSPH in 2013, Karr spent the next few years on the island of Vanuatu doing what global health and international development work has traditionally looked like: building toilets and water systems, implementing sanitation programs, teaching sexual and reproductive health, and fostering youth leadership.

Nik Karr hiking to his assigned Peace Corps community in Vanuatu (Naviso, East Maewo Island) in 2012. Photo courtesy of Nik Karr.

Nik Karr at the closing of Peace Corps Tonga’s pre-service training with the training manager and language and culture coordinator in 2017. Photo courtesy of Nik Karr.

Nik Karr and The Nature Conservancy Kiwa Women’s Work Project Team in Palau (2026). Photo courtesy of Nik Karr.

Nik Karr at a work planning workshop in Kosrae, FSM (February 2026). Photo courtesy of Nik Karr.

“What the community wanted to work on is a leading focus of the Peace Corps,” says Karr. “The community health program especially, it was figuring out what they want to work on, and then work with them on that. That was the guidance you got. You got some tools to help you out, but you were figuring it out on your own with the community or with your fellow volunteers.”

When his service as a community health facilitator ended, Karr stayed in Vanuatu and later served in Tonga, moving through different roles at the Peace Corps: provincial health management advisor, programming and training officer, and director of programming and training. This deeper dive into cultures and languages allowed him to see the true breadth of possibilities in public health work: he realized that communities were not struggling because they lacked know-how about hygiene, they were often struggling because extreme weather destroyed their water systems and rising seas threatened their crops.

After returning to the U.S., following his service in Tonga, Karr began working at Peace Corps headquarters in Washington, D.C., where he went on to help design the organization’s first global climate strategy. There, he had the opportunity to apply what he had learned in the Pacific about the inseparable nature of public health and climate: human health outcomes in the Pacific would not improve without efforts to address ecosystem health; food security efforts must account for changing weather patterns; lasting change requires local communities to lead the work.

This philosophy forms the foundation of Karr’s current work at The Nature Conservancy, where he leads the Kiwa Women’s Work Project, a multi-country initiative centered on nature-based solutions to restore and protect ecosystems, strengthen food systems, and enhance community resilience to climate change. It is work rooted in partnership, grounded in place-based knowledge, and brought alive by the women of Micronesia.

In a conversation with SPH, Karr reflects on what shaped his unexpected path in the Pacific and what he wishes more public health students understood about the scope of the field.

Source: https://www.bu.edu/sph/news/articles/2026/lessons-from-the-pacific-a-qa-with-nik-karr-sph13