President
The Huntington
Karen Lawrence has led The Huntington in San Marino since 2018. She brings a distinguished academic pedigree, including a decade as president of Sarah Lawrence College and dean of the U.C. Irvine’s School of Humanities. Overseeing the 207-acre campus, 600 staff, and 1.1 million annual visitors, she has focused on expanding access to the institution’s three collections and broadening educational programming. An advocate for the liberal arts, Lawrence is currently guiding a landmark renovation of the Huntington’s Library – a sweeping project that will renew public exhibition galleries, expand collections storage, draw library and art museum staff into closer collaboration, and establish a dedicated conservation center.
Education: Bachelor’s degree in English, Yale University; master’s degree in English literature, Tufts University; and doctorate in English and comparative literature from Columbia University.
First job: “My first academic job was as an assistant professor of English at the University of Utah, where I taught undergraduate and graduate literature and writing courses.”
Favorite charity or cause: Advancing the humanities
Favorite book: “Ulysses” by James Joyce
Favorite pastime or hobby: Going to the movies and Zumba
Favorite restaurant for fun: Agnes
Favorite spot for business: The Athenaeum
Favorite quote: “Chance favors the prepared mind” (Louis Pasteur) or “A friend is one to whom one may pour out the contents of one’s heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that gentle hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.” – George Eliot
YEARS ON LA500: 1 Year on the LA500
