Rebecca Karoff

Dr. Rebecca Karoff is a nationally recognized higher education change leader focused on advancing quality educational attainment, equity, and innovation systemically and collaboratively across institutions and organizations. Before retiring in May 2026, she led systemwide student success initiatives at The University of Texas System as Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. Her work addressed the student success continuum, PK-20 and into the workforce, leveraging the remarkable responsibility and opportunity of the University of Texas System to achieve more equitable access and outcomes for the state's increasingly diverse students. She was the primary architect of the UT System’s student success framework, collaborating closely with institutional colleagues to strengthen student financial well-being, effective advising, and students’ sense of academic and social belonging. She led several system-institutional collaborative initiatives, including the Exemplary Student Pathways Project funded by the Lumina and Trellis Foundations, the UT System Student Experience Project Improvement Network funded by the Raikes Foundation, initiatives on transfer, advising, efforts to elevate the faculty role in student success, and the UT System’s momentum-building strategy on Open Educational Resources (OER). Beyond her work in postsecondary systems, Rebecca has contributed to statewide and national higher education and student success initiatives, including the Open Education Association Steering Committee, DOERS, including the Equity Through OER Rubric, the NASH Equity Action Framework, the Texas Student Success Council, the Texas Transfer Alliance, and the ACUE Advisory Board. A native of Massachusetts, Dr. Karoff worked in the University of Wisconsin System for 21 years before joining the UT System in 2016. She has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which she uses every day in her work.