Karen Stout, AS '82, CHEP '95PhD, carries important lessons on life–many of them learned on the playing fields and in the classrooms at the University of Delaware--into her new position as president of Montgomery County Community College in Pennsylvania.

As a four-year starter on both the Blue Hen field hockey and softball teams from 1978-82, Stout gained an appreciation for hard work, persistence and collaborative efforts.

And, from her career as a student-athlete, Stout, who majored in English and worked on the staff of The Review student newspaper in hopes of becoming a professional journalist, learned to tackle multiple tasks.

That broad background will serve her well at Montgomery County Community College, a two-campus institution with 8,922 full- and part-time students.

Stout, says she believes one of her chief assets is her ability to build a team, and that ability is a direct result of her involvement in sports.

She was one of the first women to earn a field hockey scholarship to attend UD and was on the leading edge of the explosion of women's sports.

As a Fightin' Blue Hen, she starred on a field hockey team that was ranked in the top 10 nationally each of her four seasons. The Hens, competing in the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) before the NCAA adopted women's sports, finished second in the nation her freshman year and third her junior year. She also competed on the softball team.

Stout, who still plays hockey on club teams, has competed internationally. "I don't feel I matured as a hockey player until I left college," she says,

adding she still plays because "it is a good stress reliever."

Stout continues to be involved in the UD athletics program, serving as a member of the Athletics Visiting Committee. She says she is thrilled to see the advances in UD women's athletics across the board, citing the construction of Rullo Stadium and the excitement generated by the 2000-01 women's basketball team's first bid to the NCAA tournament.

When she was a high school student in nearby Bel Air, Md., Stout says, she began looking at colleges and found that "Delaware just fit perfectly."

It was a first impression that proved to be true. "I found the environment here to be extremely supportive," she says. "For what had become a large university, it still had a small-college feel."

For Stout, the small-college feel came about through her three distinct "support groups"–the English department, the athletic department and her peers on the staff of The Review.

"Before multi-tasking became popular, I learned to multi-task," she says. "I was able to do that and maintain good grades. I was leading three different lives, and I felt very comfortable moving from one part of my experience to another."

After graduating, Stout went to work for the New Castle County (Del.) Chamber of Commerce as director of communications.

In spring 1984, her life course changed dramatically when her mother saw an advertisement for an opening in the admissions office at Maryland's Harford Community College, near her hometown, and suggested she apply. "I took a shot at it and I got the job," she says.

"I fell in love with higher education, and I fell in love with community colleges," Stout says.

She had a strong mentor in Harford Community College President Alfred C. O'Connell, who encouraged her to make a career in community colleges. "When I was 24, he said to me that, if I stayed in this business, I could become a president," Stout says.

She went on to earn her master's degree in business administration from the University of Baltimore and her doctorate in educational leadership in 1995 from UD.

Stout remained at Harford Community College for nine years, then spent two years at Dundalk Community College near Baltimore.

In 1994, Phyllis Della Vecchia, the president of Camden Community College, invited Stout to accept a position as dean at the New Jersey institution. The two had worked together at Harford Community College.

Stout went to Camden Community College and "started accumulating responsibilities." The following year, she was named vice president and given the task of opening a new campus in Cherry Hill.

When the presidency of Montgomery Community College opened up, Stout says she found it "a very nice match."

She credits her success to strong support from O'Connell, Della Vecchia and coworkers. "You don't achieve success alone," she says. "I have had good mentors and good supporting casts in my staff. I've been fortunate to have both."

Stout has strong feelings about the role of community colleges in higher education. "I get passionate about creating opportunities for students to learn," she says. "The community college is the door to opportunity. Some students would never get access to a four-year institution if not for their local community college."

She says she also enjoys "the diversity of the student body in all aspects--the economic level, the educational background of parents from first generation to professionals, the age groups from young people just out of high school to 45-year-olds returning to the classroom. It's a real challenge to be in that environment. A lot of energy results from the mix."

Stout says the community college movement, which started in the 1960s, is still in its infancy, and "it feels good to be helping shape the direction of a movement."

--Neil Thomas, AS'76