Title Pro Vice-Chancellor (Students) Company University of the Sunshine Coast Bio Karen has strategic oversight of the student experience at USC and leads a range of curricular and co-curricular initiatives to enhance students’ engagement, retention and success. For 18 years, her research and practice have focused on student engagement in higher education. She has led a series of large national projects, which have produced transferrable resources for the sector. These include a student engagement maturity model and a social justice framework for higher education. In 2016, she led an eight-institution project ‘Shaping the 21st century student experience in regional universities’ and in 2017 produced a research report for the NCSEHE ‘Understanding the completion patterns of equity students in regional universities’. Karen is the Editor of the Student Success Journal and Co-Chair of the STARS Conference. Her service and contributions have been recognized by three Australian Awards for University Teaching. She became Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2016.