Center for Families

Karen Zotz is the assistant dean for engagement and assistant director for Extension in the College of Consumer and Family Sciences (CFS) at Purdue University. She received her EdD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in organizational management and leadership. She earned her master’s degree from Northern Illinois University in home economics education and her bachelor’s degree from Illinois State University in home economics education.

Zotz has been invited to present at more than 35 international, national, and regional conferences in the areas of leadership development, diversity, policy education, poverty programs, community education, and coalition building. Since 2001, she has received more than $14 million in grants directed at addressing issues in these areas and assessing the progress made to improve the quality of life for families and individuals. She also has served as a Journal of Extension reviewer for six years. 

For five years, Zotz was a member of the National Extension Leadership Program (NELD) advisory council. Three of those years, she served as the chairman of planning and implementing the program to a cohort of 25 interns. In partnership with the Experiment Station Council on Organization and Policy and the Academic Council on Organization and Policy chairman, Zotz worked with a committee of faculty representing both programs toward merging into one leadership unit representing the philosophy of the land-grant system —research, academics, and engagement — to foster partnerships among the faculty participants. As result of her role with NELD, she served on the national Extension Council on Organization and Policy for two years. 

Zotz has also worked on committees for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), along with the Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program Competitive Grants and Cooperative Agreement Programs and USDA Economic Research Service peer review committee. In addition, she served as an expert panel member for the National Family Nutrition Program Evaluation with National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, USDA, and Food and Nutrition Service professionals.

Currently, Zotz works actively with more than 85 Purdue CFS Extension educators located in Indiana’s 92 counties, faculty in CFS and other colleges and departments on the Purdue West Lafayette campus, and with her counterparts in land-grant universities around the United States. One of her primary roles is to link the needs of state agencies and county Extension programs with Purdue’s research faculty.

Zotz actively partners with many state agencies and organizations. She does guest lectures in graduate classes pertaining to careers in the CFS and about Purdue Extension. She is frequently the keynote speaker at county annual Extension board meetings where she discusses addressing 21st century Indiana issues in CFS.

In addition, she has presented more than 100 programs to statewide audiences and served on many committees on three campuses, statewide, and nationally. She has been the recipient of many awards and honors for her leadership roles on the campus and with professional organizations.

Each year, she hosts a conference for Purdue Extension educators with a focus on their personal and professional development. A lifelong learner herself, Zotz believes people should reinvent themselves to meet the needs of the current economies. Based on her own research and the research of other university scholars, she concurs with the leadership research that proves leaders are made, not born.