Dr. Karen Alexander serves as the Assistant Vice Provost for Program Development and Core Curriculum. She is also a professor of family and consumer sciences education in the Department of Interdisciplinary Human Sciences, College of Health and Human Sciences.

Dr. Alexander has been an educator for more than 35 years and has held teaching positions in secondary and post-secondary education. She has extensive experience in academic program development and program leadership, most recently serving as a faculty fellow for academic program innovation in the Office of the Provost. Prior to that role, she provided 15 years of leadership for the Family and Consumer Sciences Education Program and served for five years as the Director of the Curriculum Center for Family and Consumer Sciences.

During her tenure at Texas Tech University, she has mentored more than 50 doctoral students with their degree programs and dissertations, of which she has chaired 43 dissertation committees and served as the primary doctoral degree adviser. She continues to advise doctoral students in her department.

Dr. Alexander’s areas of teaching expertise include instructional methods for use in the secondary and college-level classrooms as well as occupational preparation and career development practices. Recognized for her creative instructional approaches and  dedication to teaching, she received the Chancellor’s Council Distinguished Teaching Award in 2017 and is a proud member of the Teaching Academy, serving as the Chair of the Executive Council in 2023-2024.

Actively engaged in scholarship, she has numerous professional publications and has given more than 250 presentations at international, national, state, and regional conferences. Dr. Alexander has managed more than $4.8 million in external funding to oversee the development and implementation of college and career initiatives for secondary students. She has also received funding to provide professional development to school counselors focused on the importance of Career and Technical Education (CTE) in secondary schools and CTE teachers to increase content literacy in their courses. Her research interests include teacher mentorship and professional development as well as the instructional needs of family and consumer sciences educator preparation programs. She has a particular interest in the integration of literacy skills with CTE content.

Her B.S. and M.S. are in Home Economics Education from The Ohio State University, and her Ph.D. is in Human Development and Family Science also from Ohio State.