Karen M. Whitney, PhD
Leadership Coach, Consultant, Former President & Chancellor
I work with higher education leaders to be courageous, confident, successful leaders.
Throughout her 40-year career in higher education, Dr. Karen Whitney has held a variety of executive and leadership positions with increasing levels of responsibility, beginning as a Director to Associate Vice President, Vice Chancellor, President, and Chancellor. Karen is a nationally recognized organizational and leadership development writer, speaker, consultant and advisor. She holds a doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin in Higher Education Administration and is a certified coach through the Center for Executive Coaching.
Today, Karen’s work revolves around advising and consulting with higher education leaders with stints in serving as an interim executive leader herself. Karen has been a leadership coach to Presidents, Provosts, VPs and Deans since 2018. As a consultant, she specializes in the area of interim or transitional leadership. She works with boards, system heads and campus CEOS to select the very best interim leadership solutions often needed at the most crucial times.
Karen’s approach to leadership coaching is to combine a proven track-record of higher education leadership with a variety of engagement approaches, including advising, coaching, facilitating, and training. Drawing on her vast experience at every level of leadership, she customizes an individual structured process to ensure each leader achieves their highest professional and institutional priorities.