Karen Whitney to Lead the 14-Campus Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education

Karen M. Whitney was named interim chancellor of the 14-campus Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. She will assume her new position on September 12.

Since 2010, Dr. Whitney has served as president of Clarion University, a campus of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. She had previously announced that she would leave the presidency of Clarion at the end of the 2017-18 academic year.

In accepting the post, Dr. Whitney stated that “I’m honored and humbled by the opportunity to serve the students, faculty, staff, alumni and the citizens of this Commonwealth. Let me be clear, the reason I accepted the Board’s invitation to serve in this role is because I completely — one hundred percent — believe in this system and that every university in it is vital for this Commonwealth to be successful.”

Before becoming president of Clarion University, Dr. Whitney was vice chancellor for student life and diversity and dean of students at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and assistant and associate vice president for student life and director of resident life at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

President Whitney holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master of public administration degree from the University of Houston. She earned a doctorate in higher education administration from the University of Texas at Austin.