Parenzan, Carol, (Former) MIddle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association; now Independent, 2 Stone Spring Lane, Apt. 1, Camp Hill, PA, 17011, parenzansmalley@gmail.com.
Former Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Carol Parenzan returns to the Susquehanna River Symposium to share her unexpected and lifechanging river journey story.
In 2020, Carol was diagnosed with numerous rare medical conditions, placing her on long-term medical disability. In “Live Like a River Flows,” she shares the role that her beloved Susquehanna River played in guiding her home to healing.
Carol’s connection with the river began in her childhood when she would travel along the river with her family, memorizing the placement of every rock and ripple. After years of competitive swimming and whitewater paddling, she ventured west in the watershed to earn an environmental engineering degree with a focus in water from Penn State.
In 2015, she founded Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association and served as its inaugural Riverkeeper, where she and the organization received numerous honors and recognitions, including Woman of the Susquehanna River Watershed, 2018 Pennsylvania River of the Year (Loyalsock Creek), PA Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence, People Who Make a Difference, and a PA Environmental Justice Advisory Board appointment. She created the Floating Classroom Program on the Hiawatha Paddlewheel Riverboat, trained “Little Keeper Susquehanna” — a Nova Scotia Duck Toller, as one of the few nose-work dogs sniffing out water pollution, and spent a week in the PA Wilds, residing with six prisoners from Quehanna Bootcamp and introducing them to environmental work.
Her water-focused career was spotlighted by Wiley Publishing in its 2022 “Global Environmental Careers: The Worldwide Green Jobs Resource.”
She recently earned two certifications: Mindfulness Outdoor Guide and Blue Water Therapist. She is currently penning several new books: a memoir titled “River Unfolding,” a middle-grade novel about the challenging migration of the American eel up the Mighty Susquehanna, and a children’s book about coal mining that parallels two communities, one here in Pennsylvania’s Anthracite Region and the other in northern Europe.
She thanks her river colleagues that have kept her in their thoughts and prayers these past five years, and she is truly grateful to be among the finest (and gnarliest) river rats once more.
inspirational, healing, Riverkeeper