The Office of the Provost and the Office of Graduate Education and Life are celebrating Katherine Karraker’s 35 years of service to WVU and invite all faculty, staff and students to participate.
Share your photos, memories and congratulatory remarks with Karraker on Kudoboard.
The board will be accessible for additions through July 31. Karraker’s last day with WVU will be Aug. 1.
Karraker joined the WVU faculty in 1985 in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Psychology. She was promoted to professor in 2004 and has held that title since. In 2007, she was named Eberly College’s assistant dean for undergraduate studies and, later, associate dean for undergraduate studies.
Karraker is a respected mentor and administrator who has focused much of her career on building and sustaining high-quality academic programs. While at Eberly College, she directed psychology’s graduate training program for 14 years; was director of psychology’s undergraduate training program for 13 years; was coordinator of the Life-Span Developmental Psychology Doctoral Program for two years; and was associate chair of psychology for two years. She is also the former acting director of the Center for Women’s Studies at WVU.
In 2012 she was tapped to lead the Office of Graduate Education and Life as interim associate provost and was named associate provost the following year. Immediately prior to stepping in as interim associate provost for graduate academic affairs, Karraker took on as-needed administrative duties in the office of undergraduate academic affairs.
Karraker’s research, grants and publications have primarily focused on infant social development, parent-infant relationships, social cognition in infancy and childhood, and parenting self-efficacy. Her service on several councils and committees across WVU has addressed student scholarships, teaching awards, faculty searches and evaluations, teacher education, student instruction, admissions review, enrollment management, and academic quality and integrity.
In addition to her work at WVU, Karraker has served on the board of directors for the Morgantown Early Learning Facility and Morgantown Learning Academy and has helped to organize the West Virginia Academy of Science annual meeting. Prior to coming to WVU, she spent seven years in the Department of Psychology at State University of New York at Buffalo.