About Dr. Haynes

The YWCA Houston named her the Outstanding Woman in Education in 1993, and she served as the Presidential Sponsor for the American Council on Education’s Texas Network of Women in Higher Education from 2001-2003. She is currently the Presidential Sponsor for the Californian Network of Women in Higher Education. Haynes is a social worker, receiving her Ph.D. from the University of Texas in Austin in social work, welfare, policy and planning. Her M.S.W. is from McGill University, and her B.A. in sociology is from Goucher College. She is the co-author of A Dream and a Plan: Women’s Paths to Leadership in the Human Services (w/Lorrie Greenhouse Gardella), and Affecting Change: Social Workers in the Political Arena (w/James S. Mickelson), and An Invitation to Social Work (w/Karen A. Holmes). She co-edited Access to Human services: International Perspectives, and authored Women Managers in Human Services.

The President of Cal State San Marcos, Karen Haynes, came to San Marcos with the reputation of building the kind of institutions where people want to come to study, to work, and to initiate lasting partnerships. She has continued that kind of building to make Cal State San Marcos the driving force to address the needs of a rapidly growing population in the tri-county region of North San Diego, Southern Orange, and Southern Riverside County.

Dr. Haynes has expanded the development and fundraising staff to include faculty and programmatic expertise to build these programs without relying solely on state or system support to meet the needs of the community. And through the “Chamber Champions” partnership with eight regional chambers of commerce, the university has begun to move into the business communities surrounding the campus in meaningful and sustainable ways. The university has also begun to create working partnerships with area medical organizations and hospitals to introduce a nursing program, and with area school districts to offer guaranteed admission to Cal State San Marcos for students who meet criteria set by the university. At the national level, Haynes is a member of the American Council on Education’s Women’s Commission on Leadership and Institutional Leadership, and served as Secretary/Treasurer of the American Association of State Colleges and University’s Board of Directors. She is an alumnus of Leadership America (’96), Leadership Texas (’90), and Leadership Houston (86).

Having made the case successfully to increase the student population from 7,000 headcount to 11,000 headcount by the 2012-2013 academic year, Dr. Haynes engaged the campus in determining its strategic priorities of academic excellence, educational equity, student life, campus climate, and community partnerships, and continued building out the academic programs to support the needs of the region.