From 2006 to the present, Karen Merritt has been a Visiting Scholar and Associate of the Center for Studies in Higher Education, University of California, Berkeley.
Merritt is the co-editor (with Jane Lawrence) of From Rangeland to Research University: The Birth of the University of California, Merced, a chronicle of the founding of UC’s tenth campus published by Jossey-Bass in 2007. She is currently working on a book about the role of the University of California and the Sierra Club in the founding of the National Park Service.
Merritt received her B.A. in English literature in 1963 from the University of Southern California and her Ph.D from Harvard University in 1968. Following sixteen years as an administrator in the University of Wisconsin System Administration, she joined UC’s Office of the President in 1986 as Director of Academic Planning and Program Review. From 1998 to 2006, she served as Director of Academic Planning at UC Merced. She is now retired.
Recent Publications
- Book review: The University of California: Creating, Nurturing, and Maintaining Academic Quality in a Public University Setting, by C. Judson King, Planning for Higher Education, Vol. 47, #1, October-December 2018.
- A University in the Wilderness: Building a Community and Culture at the New University of California, July 2017, UC Berkeley Center for Studies in Higher Education Research & Occasional Paper Series: CSHE.9.17.
- Book review: The New Flagship University: Changing the Paradigm from Global Ranking to National Relevancy, ed. by John Aubrey Douglass, Planning for Higher Education, Volume 44, Number 2 April-June 2016.
- Book review: Entrepreneurial President: Richard Atkinson and the University of California, 1995-2003, by Patricia Pelfrey, Planning for Higher Education, Vol. 41, #2, January-March 2013.
- Book review: Clark Kerr’s University of California: Leadership, Diversity, and Planning in Higher Education, by Cristina Gonzalez, Planning for Higher Education, Vol. 40, #1, October-December 2011.
- The Le Conte Memorial Lectures and Park Interpretation—a Historical Account, George Wright Forum, Vol. 27, #3, 2010. http://www.georgewright.org/273merritt.pdf
- Co-editor, with Jane Lawrence: From Rangeland to Research University: The Birth of University of California Merced, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. New Directions in Higher Education, #139, Fall, 2007.
- Book review: The California Idea and American Higher Education: 1850 to the 1960 Master Plan, by John Aubrey Douglass, Planning for Higher Education, Vol. 29, #3, Spring 2001.
Recent Presentation
- The University of California and the National Park Service—Wilderness Stories, Strong Connections, May 18, 2018. California Center for Parks and Protected Areas Leadership and E. and J. Gallo Management Program, 150 Year Anniversary,. Science and Management Symposium, UC Merced, May 17-18, 2018
