UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — P. Karen Murphy, distinguished professor of educational psychology in the Penn State College of Education, has been named associate dean of research and outreach for the college.
“In this role, my vision is for our college to stand at the vanguard of education transformation, equity and innovation by generating evidence-based research that positively enriches the lives of those in the educational landscape of the commonwealth and beyond in direct and sustainable ways,” Murphy said. “In short, I envision our college generating transformative education research for public good.”
Kim Lawless, dean of the College of Education, highlighted Murphy’s experience and enthusiasm.
“Karen brings to the role not just an outstanding research career, but also an immense amount of administrative experience at Penn State and in the academy,” Lawless said. “She is passionate about helping our faculty, students and staff help change education through research and outreach. Our future is bright!”
To increase public impact, Murphy said she wants to work collaboratively with faculty members in the College of Education and across the University, as well as with community partners to strengthen the college’s partnerships with schools and communities locally and globally.
“Across my 25 years as an academic, I have benefitted from and contributed to the land-grant missions at four research-intensive universities that maintained strong commitments to outreach,” Murphy said. “What attracted me to this position was the opportunity to draw on those experiences for our College of Education faculty, staff and students, as well as members of the schools and communities in the region.”
Murphy holds an appointment in the Department of Educational Psychology, Counseling, and Special Education (EPCSE), and is a co-funded faculty member in the Social Science Research Institute. Previously, she was head of the Department of EPCSE, professor-in-charge of the educational psychology program and chair of the College Faculty Council. In 2007, she was honored with the College of Education’s Cotterill Leadership Enhancement Award for her contributions to faculty leadership. In 2023, she was elected to the National Academy of Education, an honor society consisting of U.S. members and international associates who are elected based on outstanding scholarship related to education.
Murphy’s research, funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Spencer Foundation, focuses on the role of critical-analytic thinking in the processing of disciplinary content.. The principle behind the research is that students develop comprehension and reasoning skills by talking about evidence, weighing that evidence and helping each other come to an “examined understanding.” Her research program involves co-developing and implementing interventions like the teacher-facilitated small-group discussion approach called Quality Talk, with teachers and students, to maximize the effects of reasoning and classroom discussion on students’ comprehension and content-area learning.
A fellow of the American Educational Research Association and the American Psychological Association, Murphy was also named to the National Academy of Education and is a Faculty Research Fellow in the Centre for the Study of Resilience at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. At Penn State, Murphy was named the Harry and Marion Royer Eberly Faculty Fellow and received the Senior Outstanding Researcher Award in the College of Education.
Murphy succeeds Greg Kelly, who left in July after 20 years at Penn State to become dean of the College of Education at University of Massachusetts Amherst.