Karen Holbrook, Ph.D. Vice President for Research and Innovation
President, USF Research Foundation, Inc.

Karen Holbrook

Karen Holbrook, Ph.D.

Dr. Karen Holbrook was elected to the Board of Trustees for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in June 2007. She is currently serving as the Chair for the Academic Committee and is a member of the Executive and Finance committees.

Dr. Holbrook is Vice President for Research and Innovation at the University of South Florida, one of the nations top public research universities and one of the public universities designated by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

The University of South Florida established the USF Research Foundation, Inc., to provide assistance to the research activities of the University. This not-for-profit organization provides a means by which discoveries, inventions, processes and work products of the USF faculty, staff and student can be transferred from the University laboratory to benefit the public. Funds generated by such discoveries are used to enhance research at the University.

Prior to her appointment at the University of South Florida, Dr. Holbrook retired from the Presidency of Ohio State, the largest university in the nation, after serving from 2002 to June 2007. Ohio State is ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the country’s top 20 public universities, with a reputation for excellence in both academics and athletics.

At Ohio State, Dr. Holbrook made cutting-edge research a priority and an integral part of the educational process at all levels of the university. As a result, Ohio State’s sponsored research funding topped $652 million, an all-time high, with $100 million earmarked for 10 high-impact research projects such as climate change and public health preparedness. In the category of research expenditures, the National Science Foundation now ranks Ohio State eighth in the nation among public universities.

Before joining Ohio State, Holbrook held executive-level positions at the University of Georgia and the University of Florida. She spent the majority of her academic career as a professor of biological structure and medicine at the University of Washington, School of Medicine.

Holbrook is the recipient of many awards and honors, including most recently the President’s Award for Leadership in Technology Development from TechColumbus in 2007, the Empowered Woman Award from the Women Presidents’ Organization in 2006, and the YWCA Woman of Achievement Award in 2006.

Born in Des Moines, Iowa, Dr. Holbrook earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in zoology at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and a Ph.D. in biological structure from the University of Washington, School of Medicine, where she pursued postdoctoral training in the Department of Medicine, Division of Dermatology.

She is married to Jim Holbrook, a retired oceanographer and past deputy director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Research Laboratory in Seattle. She and her husband have one son, James.

Faculty and Student Delegates

  • Javad Gorjidooz

    Faculty Delegate,
    Prescott Campus

  • Bob Oxley, Ph.D.

    Faculty Delegate,
    Daytona Beach Campus

  • Kees Rietsema, Ph.D.

    Faculty Delegate,
    Worldwide Campus

  • Bryan Dietz

    Student Delegate,
    Daytona Beach Campus

  • Clancy Delforge

    Student Delegate,
    Prescott Campus