Karu Kozuma

Hikaru “Karu” Kozuma began his tenure as Vice Provost for University Life on May 1, 2023. A highly experienced and widely respected national leader in student and university life – who received the 2022 Pillar of the Profession Award from the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators – he previously served at Penn as Executive Director of College Houses and Academic Services, Associate Vice Provost for University Life, and Executive Director of Student Affairs. From 2018-2021, he was Chief Student Affairs Officer at Amherst College. 

As Executive Director of College Houses and Academic Services from 2021 to 2023, Kozuma oversaw the living-learning communities of Penn’s thirteen College Houses, working closely with student resident advisors, Faculty Directors and Fellows, and undergraduate deans to support the educational and residential mission of the College Houses. Earlier, as Associate Vice Provost for University Life and Executive Director of Student Affairs, he led strategic planning for student activities and programs across campus, including creating new prevention and education programs related to sexual and interpersonal violence and alcohol and other drug use, expanding student advising, and increasing crisis and emergency response initiatives. 

Before coming to Penn in 2010, Kozuma was Director of Residential Programs at Columbia University and spent three years in residential life at Middlebury College. He received an Ed.D. in Higher Education from the Penn Graduate School of Education, an M.Ed. in Higher Education Administration from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a BA from Middlebury College.