Karen Symms Gallagher, Ph.D.

Emery Stoops and Joyce King-Stoops Dean
The Rossier School of Education
University of Southern California

Karen Symms Gallagher became dean of the USC Rossier School of Education in 2000. Previously, she was dean of education at the University of Kansas and prior to that, she directed Ohio's Commission on Educational Improvement, working with policymakers in the Ohio General Assembly and business leaders from the Ohio Business Roundtable.

Dean Gallagher has a distinguished career in transforming educational organizations so they successfully achieve their goals. Under her leadership, the USC Rossier School has created highly innovative master's and doctoral programs that prepare educational leaders who are change agents as teachers, administrators and researchers.

The hallmark of her leadership style is creating mutually beneficial partnerships to rethink and resolve the complex educational and social issues facing urban communities. Currently she is building a partnership with Peking University that exchanges faculty and students, fosters funded research opportunities, and develops new graduate programs that prepare Chinese and American administrators for 21st century university leadership. In addition, she and her faculty are working with the Los Angeles Urban League to create and implement Neighborhoods@Work, a model for sustainable neighborhood revitalization in central Los Angeles.

Karen Gallagher has published two books: Shaping School Policy: A Guide to Choices, Politics and Community Relations (1992) and Politics of Education Yearbook: The Politics of Teacher Preparation Reform (2000). She has written dozens of scholarly articles in publications ranging from Educational Policy, Research in Higher Education to Early Education and Development.

She was a member of the National Science Foundation's Commission on 21st Century Education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and is the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities' representative to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, a past president of the USC Phi Kappa Phi, and member of the Los Angeles Urban League's Emeritus Board of Directors.