About Karen Weaver, EdD, President and CEO

Dr. Karen Weaver is the Director of Athletics, Intramurals and Recreation at Pennsylvania State University — The Abington College, located just outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She began this position, her third directorship, as the first full time athletics director in school history in 2006. She oversees a thirteen sport varsity program that includes 175 student athletes that is transitioning into NCAA Division III, as well as oversees a campus recreation and intramural program that meets the needs of 3200 full time students.

Prior to her arrival at Penn State, she provided department wide leadership as an Associate Athletics Director at the University of Minnesota, a program that supports 750 student athletes, 25 varsity sports and 215 full time employees. A member of the senior management team, Weaver was responsible for all personnel matters in the department, chairing or serving on numerous search committees. For several years she was the Chief Financial Officer, overseeing an $11.8 million budget, and managing the day to day finances of the department. She also oversaw six sports, four of which were Big Ten Conference Champions. She has also been an athletics director at two other institutions.

Dr. Weaver spent 16 years as a collegiate head field hockey coach, with 10 of those years as a coach in NCAA Division I. Her teams made 5 post season appearances and won an NCAA National Championship while going undefeated, the first team to do so. She has also been involved as a top national and international coach, and twice was a member of the Board of Directors of the United States Field Hockey Association. She served as the broadcast announcer and assistant producer for men's and women's field hockey at the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. She is currently working with the Big Ten Network as a color analyst.

Her doctoral degree in Higher Education Management from the University of Pennsylvania, included achieving distinction in the oral defense. Her dissertation entitled "The Launch of the Big Ten Network: How 11 Universities Created Their Own Television Network and Changed the Landscape of College Sports" is currently being considered for publication. Dr. Weaver received her bachelor's degree from Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania and her master's degree from Purdue University in Indiana. She is a graduate of the Sports Management Institute, a partnership between the athletics department and the business schools at the University of Michigan and the University of Texas. Dr. Weaver is an adjunct faculty member at Drexel University in the Graduate Sports Management Program, and is an affiliate in the BurgherGines Higher Education Management Services consulting group.

Dr. Weaver was named an All-American in field hockey at Lock Haven and was a member of the US National Squad that qualified but did not compete in the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games.



Weaver Travels to South Africa; Donates Uniforms