Mailing Address:
358 S. 700 East #B-219
Salt Lake City, Utah 84102

Telephone: (801) 330-2414

A native of Chicago, Karen Dace attended the University of Illinois at Chicago where she received a Bachelor's degree in Liberal Arts and Master's degree in Communication. After working as a public relations account manager for three years in Chicago, she returned to college to pursue a doctorate in Communication Studies at the University of Iowa.

Karen Dace joined the faculty of the University of Utah in 1990 with a joint appointment in the Ethnic Studies Program and in the Department of Communication. She teaches and conducts research in intercultural communication, gender studies, conflict management and group communication. During her tenure at the University of Utah, Professor Dace was named Director of the Ethnic Studies Program, an academic unit which houses and provides coursework in African American, American Indian, Asian Pacific American, and Chicana/o Studies.

She has also served as Director of African American Studies. In July 1999 Professor Dace was named the Associate Vice President for Diversity at the University of Utah. Her responsibilities include increasing the presence of women, people of color, persons with disabilities and other under-represented groups on campus. In addition to coordinating celebration activities for Martin Luther King, Jr. and Women's Week, her office handles the annual Days of Remembrance which honors the more than six million Jews killed in the Holocaust. Both the Gender Studies and Ethnic Studies programs, as well as the American Indian Resource Center, American Indian Teacher Training Program, and the Center for Ethnic Student Affairs, report to the Associate Vice President for Diversity.

In 2004, Dr. Dace launched The Dace Group, LLC, a diversity training and consulting group specializing in assisting corporations, schools, colleges and universities explore ways to enhance their own diversity. She is a frequent keynote and guest speaker for agencies across the country.