Karen I. Halbersleben is a child of the Great Lakes and a student of social reform, qualities that make the Presidency of Northland College an exciting calling for her.

She was raised in Buffalo, New York and received her B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in History from the State University of New York at Buffalo. After receiving her doctorate, she accepted a teaching position at the State University of New York at Oswego, on the shores of Lake Ontario. During those years, she met and married Dr. Jack Miller, an economist trained in the study of environmental and regional economic issues.

Halbersleben's motivating interest as a historian has been the study of social reformers -- people who actively try to make their world a better place. She has published a book and several articles on the women who contributed so much to the British antislavery movement. Having spent endless hours in British archives and traveling around that incomparable land every summer, she is a confirmed Anglophile. But her love of great food and brilliant sunshine also drove her to France every year to visit her "French family" and to clear her arteries of too much fish-and-chips.

While at SUNY-Oswego, Halbersleben was asked to make the transition from the classroom into the administrative office, becoming Executive Assistant to the President of that 8,000-student school. Encouraged by the two exemplary presidents she worked with at SUNY-Oswego, she applied for and received a fellowship from the American Council on Education, the premier leadership development program in the United States. She spent her fellowship year learning from the leadership team at the University of Richmond, and traveling to many colleges and universities across the country.

After her fellowship year, Halbersleben accepted the position of Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa. While at BV, she led comprehensive reforms of the undergraduate curriculum and faculty personnel policies, participated as BV became the nation's first totally wireless laptop campus, and supervised an extensive off-campus adult education program and a 19-sport NCAA program.

Halbersleben served at Buena Vista University from January 1998 until accepting the Presidency of Northland College, beginning July 1, 2002. She and Jack were attracted by Northland's people, by its mission, and by the location on Lake Superior. Her goals as President are to make Northland a leader in sustainability in every sense, and to help Northland continue toward its goal to be the nation's leading environmental liberal arts college.