Karen Gaines was named acting president of Norwich University in Vermont, the nation’s oldest private military academy. She replaces Mark Anarumo, a major general, who became president of the university in June 2020. Dr. Anarumo stated that he was leaving due to a mutual decision between him and the school’s governing body.
Norwich University enrolls just under 2,800 undergraduate students and more than 550 graduate students, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Education. Women make up 28 percent of the undergraduate student body.
Dr. Gaines has served as the provost and dean of the faculty at Norwich University since 2022. Previously, she was dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and a professor of physiology at Emery-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. Dr. Gaines served on the faculty at Eastern Illinois University from 2005 to 2016 and was chair of the biology department there from 2010 to 2016. Earlier, she worked for the University of Georgia’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site.
Dr. Gaines is a graduate of the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, where she majored in environmental biology. She holds a master’s degree in wildlife science from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and a Ph.D. in environmental toxicology from the University of South Carolina.