Roadmaps Part 1: Dr. Rodney Klein and Karen Griffee

By James Trent

On February 15, 2018

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Drs. Rodney Klein and Karen Griffee
Photo Courtesy of Rodney Klein

One of the many pressures of college is deciding what to do after graduation, but many people, including professors, never planned to be where they are today.

Dr. Rodney Klein and his wife Dr. Karen Griffee, both psychology professors, did not grow up hoping to be professors. Dr. Griffee recalls, “I grew up in Las Cruces, New Mexico and I got my graduate degree from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque… I took a year off and worked in a lockdown, patient psychiatric hospital for about three months, and then I transferred to the children’s psychiatric hospital and I did that for the rest of the year. Working at that level made me really see what the staff psychologists did, and I thought, ‘That’s what I want to do.’”

Dr. Klein had less direction coming out of graduate school. “I went to undergraduate at Central College in Pella, Iowa, then went to New Mexico Highlands for my master’s degree, and then went to University of New Mexico to get my PhD in psychology. Right after I graduated from undergrad, I went to Germany and traveled around for like a month and a half, and when I came back I was not very motivated to continue on to graduate school like I had planned. I had applied to a couple graduate schools, basically to avoid having to get a job.”

Dr. Klein took a couple graduate level courses at Iowa State, but then went to New Mexico Highlands to finish his master’s degree. He had been accepted to Highlands directly after graduation but put off going to graduate school for a year. Consequently, he was denied funding and had to pay for graduate school out of pocket.

As to how he became a teacher, Dr. Klein remembers, “As I progressed going along in graduate school, it became more and more apparent that that’s what I wanted to do. I don’t think it was ever a conscious decision that that’s what I wanted, but it was what I was being trained to do. That and research, and the whole idea of the academic environment, having a college lifestyle for a living, has always been appealing... And when I realized I was on this path, I was like, ‘I want to teach at a small school.’” Dr. Klein’s own education had always been at small schools, with his graduate school being of comparable size to Concord. He was drawn to Concord, in part because it had a rat lab at such a small, undergraduate school with which Dr. Klein could conduct his research.

Dr. Griffee originally planned to be a practicing psychologist, although she also wanted to be in a small-town area. “Before I started dating [Dr. Klein], I was basically done with my program. I’m from New Mexico, I like the physical environment and I like the culture, and I knew something like that would make me happy. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that a lot of what I liked and a lot of what I trained for actually translated here… The culture is more similar to New Mexico than you would think.”

Dr. Griffee maintained her own private practice for a long time in the Princeton area, but eventually started teaching at Concord part time. “I ended up teaching part time because they needed it, and I was surprised to find out I enjoyed it. I liked teaching enough that for quite a few years I did part time private practice and was a faculty member here. It took me a long time to decide I wanted to commit to teaching and gave up my private practice.”

In retrospect, although neither Dr. Klein nor Dr. Griffee expected to be where they are now, they are both happy with how their lives have turned out. “It’s not as important to worry about a long-term plan,” says Dr. Griffee. “I don’t think you need to decide ahead of time and have some grand plan like a ten-year plan, or even a three year plan… I’m really happy we settled here and raised our kids here. We really like West Virginia.”

Dr. Klein shares the sentiment. “Even though I never thought I would’ve ended up in West Virginia, at this point in my life, I couldn’t imagine living in Florida or California.”