Karen Sibley is Vice President for Strategic Initiatives, Dean of the School of Professional Studies (SPS), and Vice Chair of the Department of Education at Brown University, Providence, RI. She is responsible for creating innovative educational opportunities that reach a global audience of learners and include new blended learning (minimal residential requirements) post- graduate and Master’s degree programs, programs for Brown alumni and professionals in leadership positions, innovative faculty efforts in digital education, and programs for K-12 students and teachers. She also serves the University through exploration of new potentials for collaboration across institutions, with new technology platforms and in areas of civic engagement and general institutional innovation. In addition, she works with and guides the redesign of Brown’s Master of Arts in Teaching programs.
Sibley has long been involved at a national level and served in many leadership capacities in higher education professional organizations. She has made substantial contributions and served as a mentor to many in the University Professional and Continuing Education Association,Association of University Summer Sessions, and the North American Association of Summer Sessions all of which she served as President. Sibley is past Chair of the Alumni Advisory Boardfor the Executive Doctorate, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, where she earned her Doctorate in Higher Education Management. She has a Master of Arts in Teaching from Brown University, and a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She completed the HERS leadership program at Wellesley College and the Leadership Development Program at the Center for Creative Leadership. Sibley began her career as a teacher of high school English and writing.