At CMU, Ganss supports the CMU/CU Boulder Engineering Partnership Program, including areas of academic advising, curriculum updates, graduation checks, faculty engagement, student recruitment, alumni/industry outreach and connections with departments in Boulder.
As a first-generation college student, growing up in the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado shaped Ganss' passion for rural places as well as her outlook on education. Her research interests surround the experiences of students from small towns in higher education environments and she has published many articles on this subject.
Her experiences in higher education span multiple areas of student support services including admissions/recruitment, orientation/first-year experience programming, pre-health advising, honors programs, engineering education, transfer student support and university partnerships.
Ganss also has substantial experience with grant writing, in particular with successful HRSA grants related to the opiod overdose crisis in rural America.
In her free time, Ganss enjoys trail running, hiking, discovering new places in Colorado, crafting, eating delicious food and spending time with family.
Karen Ganss' Curriculum Vitae
Selected Published Work
Ganss, K. M., McNamee, T., & Islam, S. (2022, June 21). Book Review. Higher education access and success of rural students: Ensuring college-going advice is relevant to rural populations. [Review of Rural America’s pathway to college and career: Steps for student success and school improvement, by R. Dalton]. Theory and Practice in Rural Education, 12(1), pp. 133-137. doi: 10.3776/tpre.2022.v12n1p133-137.
McNamee, T., Willis, J., Ganss, K. M., Ardoin, S., & Sansone, V. (2020). Don’t forget about rural higher education students: Addressing digital inequities during COVID-19. Diverse Issues in Higher Education. https://diverseeducation.com/article/176117/.
Ganss, K. M. (2018). Advising rural students to become rural healthcare providers. The Advisor, 38(1), 25-28.
Ganss, K. M. (2016) The college transition for first-year students from rural Oregon communities. Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, 53(3), 269-280.
doi: 10.1080/19496591.2016.1157487
Ganss, K. M. (2015). [Review of the book Learning the Hard Way: Masculinity, Place, and the Gender Gap in Education, by E. W. Morris]. Rural Sociology, 80(3), 387-389. doi:10.1111/ruso.12074
Ganss, K. M. & Baker, L. (2015). Utilizing critical service-learning to ease college transitions. Currents in Teaching and Learning, 7(1), 131-142.
Ast, K. M. (2014). Small town, not small time: Understanding the experiences of rural students. The
Journal of College Orientation and Transition, 21(2), 66-69.
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6683-5711