Karen Keene Receives 1-Year Appointment to NSF as Program Officer

RALEIGH, North Carolina — Karen Keene, an associate professor of mathematics education in the NC State College of Education, will serve as a program officer with the National Science Foundation for at least one year beginning Aug. 7.

Her appointment is part of NSF’s rotating program officer initiative where university faculty work at the federal agency for one or two years.

“Ever since I became a professor, I have been interested in learning about the National Science Foundation, government policy and grantsmanship,” said Keene, who joined the NC State faculty in 2007 after serving as an assistant professor for two years at Valparaiso University. “I have also been awarded several NSF grants, so I have experienced submitting grant proposals from the receiving end. I wanted to be part of the ‘awarding’ end of the process. I hope to contribute to the National Science Foundation in several areas as well.”

Keene will be a program officer in NSF’s Division of Undergraduate Education and Human Resources Directorate, and she will be involved in grant proposals related to improving STEM Teaching at the Undergraduate Level.

Her research interests include undergraduate mathematics education, primarily related to differential equations teaching and learning; the social construction of mathematical meaning in undergraduate classrooms; and how teachers’ content knowledge connects to their teaching and curriculum development.

She taught high school mathematics for 20 years before earning her Ph.D. in mathematics education from Purdue University. She holds her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics from Butler University.

Keene’s appointment at the NSF will end Aug. 6, 2018, with an option for a second year.