Dr. Katherine Karraker, professor and associate chair of the Department of Psychology, has been named the new assistant dean for student affairs for the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University, effective Aug. 1.
Dr. Karraker succeeds Associate Dean Nicholas Evans, who will be retiring in June after a long and distinguished career at WVU . Evans’s relationship with the University, first as a student and then as a faculty member, has lasted for more than 50 years.
“When I was a freshman in 1955, WVU had 5,800 students. In 1967, when I returned as a faculty member, that number had grown to around 12,000. Now we’re over 27,000, and the cultural changes during that time period have been far more substantial than the physical changes,”he said.”WVU truly has become a national university with a cosmopolitan mix of students.”
A native of Clarksburg, Evans joined the English faculty at WVU in 1967, but he is best known for the many capacities in which he has counseled students, as an advisor in the English Department and then with the WVU Advising Center, as director of the Undergraduate Academic Services Center, and, since 1991, as the Eberly College’s associate dean for undergraduate education.
Dr. Katherine Karraker earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Colorado and both a master’s degree and a doctorate from Michigan State University in developmental psychology. She joined the faculty at WVU in 1985 after teaching at the State University of New York at Buffalo and has published extensively in the field of developmental psychology. Her research has been supported by grants from the March of Dimes, the WVU Faculty Senate and the Eberly College.
Karraker has served the Department of Psychology and the Eberly College in a number of capacities. She has been director of psychology’s graduate training program for the past 14 years; was director of psychology’s undergraduate training program for 13 years; was coordinator of the Life-Span Developmental Psychology Doctoral Program for two years; and has been associate chair of psychology for the past two years. She is also the former acting director of the Center for Women’s Studies at WVU .
Her responsibilities as assistant dean will be focused on undergraduate student recruitment and retention as well as academic policies and standards.
“I am looking forward to the opportunity to serve the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences as assistant dean for student affairs,”Karraker said.”I hope to continue the good work done by Nick Evans in helping students earn their degrees, and to address the continuing challenges of recruiting and retaining top quality majors in the College.”
“All of us in the Eberly College and around WVU have a deep appreciation for Dean Evans’s many years of service,”said Dr. Mary Ellen Mazey, dean of the Eberly College.”He has done so much for so many. I am happy to welcome Dr. Karraker to the dean’s office and I look forward to working closely with her in this new position.