Karen A. Holbrook, Ph.D.

USF System Sr. Vice President for Global Affairs &
International Research and Professor of Molecular Medicine

Karen A. Holbrook, Ph.D., served as president of The Ohio State University for five years and is currently USF System Sr. Vice President for Global Affairs & International Research and Professor of Molecular Medicine at the University of South Florida.

Before becoming president of Ohio State in 2002, Dr. Holbrook was senior vice president for academic affairs and provost at the University of Georgia. Prior to that, Dr. Holbrook was vice president for research and dean of the Graduate School at the University of Florida, and associate dean for research and professor of biological structure and medicine at the University of Washington, School of Medicine.

Dr. Holbrook has served on the boards of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association of American Medical Colleges, the American Council of Education, the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, and the Association of American Universities, among others. She participates on numerous advisory panels and councils for the National Institutes of Health, including the NIH Blue Ribbon Panel for the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory, Boston, and was a recent member of the Advisory Committee to the Director of the NIH. She is currently on several boards, including the boards of the Institute for International Education (IIE), Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA), Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU), ACT, and Techne, Inc.

Dr. Holbrook has had a productive research career in the biomedical sciences and was a MERIT Award recipient from the NIH. She earned bachelor's and master's degrees in zoology at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, a doctorate in biological structure at the University of Washington, School of Medicine where she also served as a postdoctoral fellow in dermatology and a faculty member.

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