About Karen McCleary

Karen is Associate Director of Student Recruitment in the Office of Admissions at Harris. In this role, she recruits, interviews, evaluates, and selects applicants for admission, with an eye toward improving applicant pools, admissions practices, and recruitment efforts for underrepresented students and deconstructing barriers to enrollment for these students.

Karen’s first foray into the world of higher education was during her time as an undergraduate, when she worked and volunteered for the Carleton College Office of Admissions. After graduation, she pursued her interest in admissions as a career by joining the California Institute of Technology as an Undergraduate Admissions Counselor. Here, she practiced breaking down systemic barriers facing historically under-represented students in their pursuit of higher education. Upon moving to New York to pursue her master's degree, she joined Barnard College as a Senior Admissions Officer, later becoming an Associate Director. In all of her previous roles, Karen has read applications, planned recruitment and yield events, developed marketing/communication strategies, and worked on making admissions systems more equitable for students.

Karen completed her undergraduate education at Carleton College where she earned a bachelor of arts in linguistics in 2014. In 2022, she earned her master's of education in higher and postsecondary education at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is excited to use everything she learned during her graduate program in her role at Harris!