Karen Spangler
Academic Advisor
As a first generation American, born to immigrant parents, Spangler understands the importance of education and the opportunities it affords. She earned an AA in 1983, a BA in 2001 and completed an MA in TESOL in 2004.
Karen began as a freshman advisor in 2004. She then, moved on to advising athletes and becoming an English instructor in Ball State’s Intensive English Institute until 2016. In 2017 she rejoined Academic Advising as Undergraduate Academic Advisor for Construction Management, Interior Design, and Landscape Architecture.
Her interests include professional development and research related to student success, academic advising, student population trends and needs in higher education, and special student populations specifically, first generation students.
When not working, you can find Karen playing golf, writing pen-pal letters to her granddaughters, reading, watching the Simpsons, Bob's Burgers, Seinfeld or crime shows and enjoying the flowers and birds in the backyard.
"Students are amazing complex people for whom it is a privilege to serve as advisor."
Publications include:
• Contributor with Larry Markle (2009). Getting in the Game: Advising Student-Athletes with Disabilities. NACADA Monograph Series Number 19, 2009. Pp 59-64. NACADA 2009
• NACADA Book Review: Miller-Young, Janice and Jennifer Boman (2017). New Directions for Teaching and Learning: Using the Decoding the Disciplines Framework for Learning Across the Disciplines. Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 2017. Found here
• NACADA Book Review: Pascarella, Ernest T. and Patrick T. Terenzini (2005). How College Affects Students: A Third Decade of Research (Volume 2). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, (2005). Found here.