Dear Colleagues, 

As Karen Ford begins her long-planned retirement from the University of Oregon and from the provost’s office today, we want to share this transition with the wider community and express our gratitude to Karen.  

Karen has been at the UO since 1992.  She is a scholar of American poetry and poetics and has been a highly valued and respected faculty member in the English department for her scholarship and for her award-winning work in the classroom (she is a Herman Award winner) and with Ph.D. students. She has served the university as Director of the Creative Writing Program, as Department Head, as Divisional Dean for the Humanities, as College of Arts and Science Dean of Faculty, as Interim Dean of the Clark Honors College, and most recently as Acting Executive Vice Provost and Interim Provost (and in countless other less easily enumerated ways). 

Karen is a principled and creative faculty member and administrator. In these roles, she has made the university a better place and helped many students and faculty across campus. While we will miss her voice and ingenuity at work, we are grateful for the wise leadership she has brought to the university and for the conscientious care she has given to those of us who have had the privilege to be her colleague over the years. 

We wish Karen well as she begins this new phase of her life, and we celebrate the countless ways the university community has been enriched by her presence. 

Sincerely, 

Christopher P. Long 
Provost and Senior Vice President 

Hal Sadofsky 
Interim Executive Vice Provost for Academic Administration