The University of Arkansas at Fort Smith has hired a new administrator to run its Department of Financial Aid and Veterans Benefits.
Karen Jeffers, most recently director of financial aid and scholarships at Tulsa Community College in Oklahoma, will replace David Seward. She will start today.
Jeffers will lead a staff of nine financial aid employees. The office serves nearly 6,500 students, administering more than $53 million in financial aid and scholarships in line with federal, state and institutional guidelines.
Her ties to the Fort Smith campus go back to 2000 in her first professional job, which was at Westark College, the forerunner of UA-Fort Smith. Westark became UAFS in 2002.
Jeffers, 45, has worked for two decades in financial aid offices in the mid-South region of the country. Jeffers was director of financial aid at Redlands Community College in El Reno, Okla., from 2007-11 and assistant director of financial aid at Westark and UAFS from 2000-07.
She is a past president and a current member of the Oklahoma Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators and a past board member of the Southwest Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, where she served as the Oklahoma president.
Jeffers earned a Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture business management at California State Polytechnic University-Pomona in 1997 and an Associate of Science degree in agriculture business management from Bakersfield College in California in 1994.
Her salary will be $91,000 per year, a spokeswoman for UA-Fort Smith said.