Karen L. Poulin, Ph.D., a licensed psychologist and certified health service provider, earned her doctorate in Counseling Psychology from the University of Oregon in 1993. She pursued post-doctoral training in organizational change at the University of Missouri-Columbia’s Center for the Study of Organizational Change (CSOC) while appointed as a senior clinician and Training Director of an APA-accredited doctoral internship in professional psychology at the University of Missouri-Columbia Counseling Center. Currently on faculty in Extension at Washington State University, she continues to hold an appointment as a Consulting Associate with CSOC. Over the past ten years, she has drawn from psychoanalytic, systems, and grounded research theories in consulting to both private and public organizations, with emphasis in healthcare and education.

Along with enduring interests in object relations, interpretive methodology and organizational dynamics, her commitments to interdisciplinary exchange and the theory-practice dialectic are reflected in her conference presentations, publications, professional service and teaching, for which she has won multiple awards. Dr. Poulin has presented to such varied audiences as the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations, the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Family Practice, the American Educational Research Association, the American College Personnel Association, the National Science Teachers Association, and the Association of Theater in Higher Education. She has published in Psychology of Women Quarterly, Ethics and Behavior, and Theater Topics, as well as made contributions to several book chapters. She is a frequent reviewer for Professional Psychology: Research and Practice.

Her current research efforts are directed at uncovering the tacit knowledge imbedded in the practice of experienced, field-based Extension practitioners. Her recent selection as a Western Extension Leadership Development scholar will allow her to extend her research into the area of administration.

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