Dr. Rebecca Karoff is dedicated to utilizing the power of the university system as a catalyst for quality educational attainment, equity, innovation and transformation in the 21st-century global society.
She joined the University of Texas System in February 2016 as Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. Responsible for leading and supporting student success initiatives system-wide, her work addresses the student success continuum, PK-20 and into the workforce, and recognizes the remarkable responsibility and opportunity of the University of Texas System to achieve more equitable access and outcomes for the state’s increasingly diverse students. Through a number of projects, she is focused on identifying the touchpoints where the UT System and institutions can collaborate meaningfully together and across sectors, and on fortifying the levers and bridges that connect PK-12 to higher education. These projects work to strengthen educator preparation programs, dual credit in Texas, critical literacies students need in a globally interdependent economy, and undergraduate student success at the System’s academic universities. She is the primary architect of the UT System’s student success framework, which is focused on student financial well-being, effective advising, and deepening students’ sense of academic and social belonging. Her work is data-informed, equity-minded and quality-driven, and she is interested in expanded approaches to measuring student success.
Prior to joining the UT System, Dr. Karoff spent 21 years working the University of Wisconsin System, utilizing her policy background to help drive proficiency-based curricular delivery and reform through a number of collaborative system-wide initiatives. She was the founder and director of LEAP Wisconsin, the UW System’s partnership with the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) on its Liberal Education and America’s Promise or LEAP Campaign. She played a lead role in the planning and development of The UW Flexible Option, the University of Wisconsin System’s online, competency-based educational program.
Dr. Karoff has been successful in identifying internal and external resources to fund institutional and system student success work, including grants from the Gates and Lumina Foundations.
A native of Massachusetts, Dr. Karoff received Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in Comparative Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and earned a B.A. with Honors from Brown University.