Karen Butler-Purry
Karen L. Butler-Purry is an American electrical engineer, engineering educator, and academic administrator. Her research has involved electrical microgrids and the distribution of electricity in electric vehicles. Formerly the Associate Provost for Graduate and Professional Studies and Dean of the Graduate and Professional School at Texas A&M University, she retains a position at Texas A&M as a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Butler-Purry is African-American, and has written about her experiences as an African-American woman in engineering.
Education and career
Butler-Purry majored in electrical engineering at Southern University, a historically black school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, graduating summa cum laude in 1985. After earning a master's degree in 1987 from the University of Texas at Austin, she went to Howard University for doctoral study, completing her Ph.D. in 1994. During this period she also held short-term positions at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, IBM, Hughes Aircraft Company, and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.She came to Texas A&M University as a visiting assistant professor in 1994, and became a tenure-track assistant professor in 1995. In 2001, she was promoted to associate professor, also becoming assistant dean for graduate programs in the College of Engineering. She was promoted to full professor in 2005, and served as Associate Provost for Graduate and Professional Studies and Dean of the Graduate and Professional School from 2010 to 2022.