Welcome President Holbrook   Photos by Jo McCulty

New President Karen A. Holbrook enters Ohio Stadium through the Pride Tunnel after Convocation on Sept. 23. During the event, Holbrook spoke to 5,900 new freshman and first-quarter transfer students, bonding with them in the shared experience of being new members to the Buckeye family. "I know how privileged we are to spend our days in the environment of creative, energetic, talented, well-prepared and intelligent people -- students and faculty alike," she told the audience. "We pledge to continually improve, to evolve and to be vigilant in maintaining and enhancing our standards to ensure a quality education." After Convocation, the students strolled through Ohio Stadium and onto the Oval for the President's Picnic and Buckeye Bash.

Ohio State welcomes our 13th president

One need only spend a few minutes with Karen A. Holbrook to get a real sense of the boundless vigor and vivaciousness that surround The Ohio State University's new leader. "High energy" and "hard working" are the descriptions that virtually all her colleagues at the University of Georgia use to label their former provost. Her staff there report that she is always the first to arrive in the morning and regularly the last to turn off the lights at night.

During her last week in Georgia -- between meetings about projects and initiatives that she had begun but would reluctantly now have to turn over to others -- onCampus had the opportunity to sit down with Holbrook to discuss her transition from provost to president. In an interview peppered by phone calls and knocks on her door from staff and well-wishers, she mentioned that her plans for the remainder of that week were to finish work in Georgia on Wednesday, finishing packing her home on Thursday, move to Columbus on Friday, and then start work at Ohio State at 9 a.m. Saturday for student move-in. That following Monday she spent time at the President's Convocation for new students and at a picnic with freshmen on the Oval.

At times teary-eyed as she reflected on leaving one home for the challenges of finding a new one, but always speaking with the great humor, insight and candor that typify her conversation and style, Holbrook recalled how her Midwestern roots laid the foundation for her ascent to the presidency of the nation's second-largest institution of higher education and how her faculty background in teaching and research helped develop her career in administration.

Born in Des Moines, Iowa, and raised in Madison, Wisconsin, Holbrook earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in zoology at the University of Wisconsin. She taught biology at Ripon College, also in Wisconsin, for three years before earning a Ph.D. in biological structure from the University of Washington School of Medicine, where she later became professor of biological structure and medicine and gained a national reputation for her expertise in dermatology. As associate chair of her department, Holbrook realized how much she enjoyed helping other faculty and felt her career might be best suited for administration. Her desire and extraordinary work ethic eventually led to her being named Washington's associate dean for scientific affairs.

It was in Seattle that Holbrook met and married Jim Holbrook, a now-retired oceanographer and past deputy director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Research Laboratory. They have a 28-year-old son, James, who studies telecommunications at the University of Georgia.

After five years at the University of Florida in Gainesville as vice president for research and dean of the graduate school, Holbrook was named in 1998 senior vice president for academic affairs and provost at the University of Georgia. Among her many achievements at Georgia, she helped create the Biomedical and Health Sciences Institute and played a key role in developing the university's strategic plan, which among other things includes a strong commitment to diversity and ambitious diversity goals. Working with the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, she strongly supported the efforts of faculty and research leaders to successfully expand Georgia's federal research funding.

Life's next great challenge, Ohio State's presidency, began July 25 when, at a press conference attended by members of the statewide and national media, Board of Trustees chairman and leader of the presidential search committee James F. Patterson announced Holbrook's selection as the institution's 13th president. The 59-year-old had previously made it clear that she wanted to end her career as a president. And on October 1, 2002 that goal has become reality as Holbrook officially took the reins of The Ohio State University.

From her by-then nearly barren office in Georgia's administration building, surrounded by boxes of files and books, her collection of glass -- fish are her particular favorite -- and other artwork and athletics posters, Holbrook shared some of her thoughts about Ohio State and its future under her leadership.