Karima I. A. Bouchenafa is an Assistant Dean and Director of the Black Cultural Center at Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, PA). Previously, she served as Assistant Director of the Philadelphia University Honors Institute at Thomas Jefferson University (Philadelphia, PA). She has nearly twenty-four years of experience in higher education, having served in several administrative roles and as adjunct faculty (teaching courses in English Composition, Literature, and Academic Reading) at various institutions in the Greater Philadelphia (PA) area, including Community College of Philadelphia, Bryn Mawr College, Montgomery County Community College, Villanova University, Delaware Valley University, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and Rutgers University-New Brunswick, where she served as an Assistant Dean in the School of Arts and Sciences Honors Program.
Ms. Bouchenafa is an alumni trustee of the University of Virginia, serving as an emeritus member of the board of directors for the UVA IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access) Fund, which, in collaboration with the Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, provides action-oriented leadership and support to University initiatives in order to ensure that the values of inclusion, diversity, equity, and access permeate the University community and culture. Ms. Bouchenafa is also one of four vice presidents of the Board of Managers for the Associated Alumni of Central High School of Philadelphia, the nation’s second oldest continuously public high school in the nation (founded in 1836). Additionally, Ms. Bouchenafa has engaged her interests in non-profit leadership and community development through work for the Belmont Mansion House Museum & Underground Railroad Historic Site, the Cobbs Creek Community Environmental Education Center, and West Mt. Airy Neighbors. Ms. Bouchenafa is also a former board member of The Ivy Legacy Foundation, The Johnson House Underground Railroad Historic Site, and UVA’s Madison House Alumni Council. She is a member of the 2020-2022 cohort of The Links, Incorporated, Leadership Academy, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, the Association of Black Women in Higher Education (where she served as one of the chairs of the 2023 national conference), and the United Nations Association of the United States. Ms. Bouchenafa invests her time in giving back to those communities that have given so much to her. Ms. Bouchenafa is also a 2014-2015 Education Design Studio, Inc. Fellow, having advanced to the semi-finals of the University of Pennsylvania’s Milken/Graduate School of Education’s Educational Entrepreneurship competition. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in English (with a minor in African-American Studies) at the University of Virginia, and a Master’s degree in English Language and Literature at Georgetown University. She is currently a doctoral candidate in the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University-New Brunswick; her dissertation (in progress) focuses on alumni of honors programs/colleges at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
