Karen Swyler recieved her BFA at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 1998, and her MFA from the University of Colorado - Boulder in 2002. She was also a Special Satus Student at the University of Massachusetts - Dartmouth from 1999 – 2000. Swyler has been a resident artist at the State University of New York - Stony Brook (SUNY) and at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana. She has taught as an assistant at SUNY and the University of Colorado. Swyler is currently an Assistant Professor of Art at Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vermont.