Bussey
Higher Education Strategist | Equity Advocate
Karen
ABOUT
Karen Bussey, Ph.D. is a higher education strategist who works with and for historically underrepresented students in higher education. She is currently the deputy chief of staff at Fayetteville State University. Previously, she was the policy advisor to New Jersey's Office of the Secretary of Higher Education implementing the Governor's education, workforce, and economic development initiatives. Her portfolio helped to recover the economy of the State and adapt from the on-going COVID-19 pandemic by closing equity gaps in the state’s education-workforce pipeline. Karen has a decade of experience in higher education within the institutional, state, and non-profit sectors.
Karen started her career in higher education working in student affairs and served as the Assistant Director of Campus Life at Jackson State University leading the university’s student engagement and leadership development initiatives. As a researcher and project manager at the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) in Washington, DC she worked with policy experts to provide research and recommendations to improve college student success and postsecondary data policies.
Karen has presented at national conferences on postsecondary policy and educational equity, including the National Association for College Admission Counseling, the Association for the Study of Higher Education, the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association, the Association for Education Finance and Policy, and the Association for Public Land-Grant Universities. Notably, she was selected as a 2021 National Center for Education Statistics Data Institute fellow and a 2018 Montpelier Robert H. Smith Center for the Constitution fellow. Karen previously served as one of the board of directors for the Association for the Study of Higher Education. Her latest publication— a chapter in the book Imagining the Future: HBCUs a Matter of Survival— offers a practical guide for leaders to define the value of HBCUs using retention and completion metrics that account for diversity and equity as they reposition themselves in the era of accountability.
Karen completed her doctoral studies in the Higher Education Leadership and Policy Studies at Howard University in May 2022. Her dissertation is titled, "Examining the Racialization of Higher Education: A Focus on Student Loan Debt, Institutional Revenue, and Agency at Historically Black Colleges and Universities." Karen earned a Master of Education in professional counseling with a concentration in student affairs from the University of West Georgia. She holds a Bachelor of Science in marketing from South Carolina State University. She is a devoted life member of the SCState National Alumni Association.
Dr. Karen Bussey delivers Words of Wisdom to her fellow graduating class of 2022.
Howard University
School of Education
May 5, 2022
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