Karen is an educator and an author. Prior to becoming a college president, she was a tenured law professor for two plus decades. Her academic areas of expertise include trauma, toxic stress, consumer finance, overindebtedness and asset building in low income communities. She currently serves as Senior Counsel at Finn Partners Company. From 2011 to 2013, She served (part and full time) as Senior Policy Advisor to the US Department of Education in Washington, DC. She was the Department's representative on the interagency task force charged with redesigning the transition assistance program for returning service members and their families. From 2006 to 2014, she was President of Southern Vermont College, a small, private, affordable, four-year college located in Bennington, VT. In Spring 2016, she was a visiting faculty member at Bennington College in VT. She also teaches part-time st Molly Stark Elementary School, also in Vt. She is also an Affiliate of the Penn Center for MSIs. She is the author of adult and children’s books, the most recent of which are titled Breakaway Learners (adult) and Lucy’s Dragon Quest. Karen holds a bachelor degree in English and Spanish from Smith College and Juris Doctor degree (JD) in Law from Temple University - James E. Beasley School of Law.
I have had protesters outside my apartment in Washington DC since I returned from British Columbia 10 days ago. They are objecting to the use of aversives and GED at The Judge Rotenberg Educational Center in Canton, MA. At the start of the protest, I had never heard the term “aversives.” And despite being an educator, I had no knowledge of The Judge Rotenberg Education Center. I had assumed that we had long ago abandoned torture as a form of getting student compliance.
This truth can’t be denied: some of the most significant changes in American society and culture have come from protests. And, looking back on recent history without the taint of politics, the most powerful of these changes have been driven by young people.
Start with this realization: future students will not be clones of their educators nor similar to many students today.' Our world is changing. Surely we can all agree, even with the growth of artificial intelligence, that we cannot do away with all teachers and professors in the coming decades! The better inquiry is to ask what roles these individuals can and will play within the educational system of the future. The reason? If we fail to prepare our teachers and professors well, they will not succeed in providing optimal education to our students and their families.
I was recently asked by Denis Zekic (founder of CeeDoo) to answer a set of written questions which he would then review for content and length. Thereafter, I would answer (edited as needed) the same questions orally on my cellphone using the video function; then those answers would be edited down and posted on LinkedIn. His idea was to showcase or share the voices of Top Voices on LinkedIn.
There is no question about it: being a college or university president is hard. And, it is getting harder. These deepening challenges mean the time has come to re-think how we view this critical role in educating the next generation. I believe we need to consider the deployment of a different leadership paradigm for some institutions moving forward: co-presidencies.
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