About

Dr. Karri Holley is Professor of Higher Education at The University of Alabama, where she also serves as the Director of Graduate Student Success in the College of Education. Her research examines the organizational, cultural, and economic influences on the structure and processes of the contemporary university, with an emphasis on graduate and doctoral education. She has also written on interdisciplinary work in higher education as well as narrative structure and the writing process related to qualitative inquiry. She received her Ph.D. and M.Ed. in Higher Education from the University of Southern California, and a B.A. in English and Communication Studies from The University of Alabama.

She currently works on grant-funded projects focused on interdisciplinary graduate education; professional development for graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and faculty; and education evaluation. Her previous professional experiences include service as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine as well as a career in graduate admissions. She held leadership roles in national and international associations, including chair of the AERA Graduate and Postdoctoral Education across the Disciplines SIG and a member of the program committees for ASHE, AERA, and IDERN. She taught professional development workshops at the annual AERA Conference focused on qualitative inquiry and the writing process.

She served as editor for Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education from 2014-2022. The journal focuses on scholarship and practice related to graduate education, including master’s and doctoral level, and postdoctoral experiences. The journal publishes scholarly articles from a range of academic disciplines and research methods that represent issues of interest to the international community. She currently serves on the editorial board for Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education and Innovative Higher Education. She is a research affiliate of the International Centre for the Comparative Study of Doctoral Education, based at Durham University (United Kingdom) and University of Sofia (Bulgaria).

She has chaired or co-chaired over 50 doctoral dissertations at The University of Alabama, including students in the Ph.D. and Ed.D. in Higher Education programs as well as the Ph.D. program in Interdisciplinary Studies. Several of these dissertations have gone on to receive awards from the UA College of Education as well as relevant professional associations. In 2019 she received the Nellie Rose McCrory Faculty Excellence in Research Award.