Jennifer Tharp, Ph.D.

HIED 525: Curriculum Development in Higher Education

Dr. Jennifer Tharp is an adjunct professor in Higher Education and serves full-time as the Assistant Dean of Student Academic Services and Director of Student Success at The King’s College. At King's, Dr. Tharp leads retention and persistence strategies to support student learning and success. She is responsible for the development and implementation of academic support programming, advising, and student persistence and retention initiatives. She also supports the work of faculty by consulting on best practices for student success and facilitating academic policy. After first joining The King’s College in 2009, Dr. Tharp developed the Office of Student Success in 2014 and subsequently supported a nearly 20 percentage point increase in retention rates at King's in the last four years. Dr. Tharp earned a PhD in Higher Education with a concentration in Student Success from Azusa Pacific University (CA) where her research focused on college student thriving and the psychosocial factors that support student thriving, learning, and success in college.