Karen Scheel

Karen is a psychology teaching professor at Iowa State University. She is a Midwest native who received her Ph.D. in counseling psychology from the University of Iowa. Before joining ISU in 2007, she served as an associate professor and co-director of training in counseling psychology at the University of Akron. As a specialty area, counseling psychology promotes well-being through building on strengths, celebrating differences, and advocating for opportunity. Karen loves infusing these perspectives into her work as a professor and involvement as a community member. She trains counseling graduate students, teaches undergraduate courses, leads a freshman seminar on the psychology of happiness and well-being, coordinates the Psychology Freshman Learning Community, and serves on student dissertation and university committees. Karen has one child, Indy, who is studying computer engineering at ISU. In her free time, Karen enjoys time with Indy and her family and friends, traveling, backyard bird watching, and reading with a cat in her lap.