Biography

Dr. Karan Powell
Vice President and Academic Dean

Dr. Karan Powell is vice president and academic dean of American Public University System. Dr. Powell provides strategic guidance and oversight of curriculum, faculty selection and management, and all academic departments. Dr. Powell holds a doctorate in education from George Mason University, with a specialization in organization development and organizational learning.

Dr. Powell has more than 30 years of experience in learning, leadership development, organization performance enhancement, and transformation in education, non-profit, business, and government settings.

Prior to assuming her position as dean in 2006, Dr. Powell served as the University System’s interim chancellor in 2004 and dean of the school of business, management, and graduate studies in 2005. Her expertise in online education, management education and development, organization transformation, leadership development, and organizational learning is critical to the University System’s growing online curriculum and student body. 

Dr. Powell first joined the University System’s Board of Trustees while chief learning officer for American Management Systems, a large business and information technology consulting firm. There, she transformed a traditional training department into a corporate university in less than a year, developed strategic partnerships with universities, designed and implemented an online corporate performance management system, and incorporated online learning into the corporate university.

She also owns and leads Powell and Associates, an organization transformation and executive development consulting firm. Dr. Powell serves as an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University. There, she has designed and taught leadership classes for the U.S. Senate, Verizon, and others. She has been an adjunct faculty member at University of Phoenix Online, George Mason University, and University of Maryland University College.

In addition to her doctorate, Dr. Powell holds a bachelor of science in business education from Western Illinois University and a master of divinity from Loyola University. She is a registered organization development consultant through the Organization Development Institute, and she earned a certificate in advanced organization design from the University of Southern California. Dr. Powell’s work has special emphasis in learning at a distance, leadership development, system change, organization transformation, and spirituality in the workplace.