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We take great delight to honor the career of Karen Jamesen because she is both an alumni and one who has significantly contributed to the Department of Foods and Nutrition and the students who matriculated through it for 38 years. The last class she taught (as sophomores) graduates this spring. Dedication, hard work, ingenuity and insight have been hallmarks of her career.
After completion of her BS and Master’s degrees in this department, she started her career as an instructor in 1966 and was promoted to tenure-track faculty in 1970. She taught tirelessly in the Department of Foods and Nutrition with a heavy teaching load and the students were the benefactors of her commitment. She received numerous teaching awards, including the Amoco Teaching Award, the Mary L. Matthews Teaching Award, the Phi Tau Sigma Award, the Gamma Sigma Delta Award of Merit and was been placed on the permanent list of Outstanding Teachers in CFS. She had consistently high student evaluations with students highlighting her clarity, knowledge of course content, interesting presentation of material, and accessibility for help. She was inducted into the Teaching Academy in 1997 and her name was put on the Book of Great Teachers in 1999.
Alumni attest to career-shaping conversations with Karen. She watched her students carefully and pointed them directions they might never have considered. At the same time, she shaped opportunities for them through this department. She was very active in promoting the programs and students of this department with industry contacts. As Coordinator of Cooperative Education and Summer Internships in Food Science and Foods and Nutrition in Business, she secured placement for students in companies such as Nabisco, General Foods, Lipton, Central Soya, Kraft, Bristol Myers, and M&M Mars. In later years, she innovated an externship experience for our Food Science & F&N in Business students during Christmas and spring vacations. The response from industry was so favorable that some years we had more placements than we had students to fill them. She was also very active in identifying eligible students for scholarships, honoraries and awards. At alumni events, Karen Jamesen is sought out by past students. This reflects the warmth and dedication and creative thinking that she has consistently given to them over the years.
Karen Jamesen was an innovator in the Department. She promoted an increase in the quality of food science teaching in high schools by training high school teachers in food science content through a state educational grant. Though her academic appointment is as ten-month faculty, she has come in during the summer to administer this program and others without complaint or compensation. She developed new courses and chaired the committee to develop the Nutrition, Fitness and Health major.
She served with this same dedication as an elder on Session at Central Presbyterian Church. She also served as a trustee. in her personal life,Karen was a tireless support to several elderly relatives. Somehow, in spite of the long hours she spent at Purdue and serving in her private life, she found the creativity and stamina with her husband Ward to be an entrepreneur in local real estate properties.
In her “retirement,” she has started a new entrepreneurial adventure with her brother, a visionary plan to develop their family farm. In the same way she looked at students and envisioned their potential, she now envisions a broader use for their farm than just “development.” She sees a community that would maximize quality of life for those who will live there. She faces this project with the same work ethic and dedication that were hallmarks of her career at Purdue.
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