SOUTH KINGSTOWN – Former WPRI-TV CBS 12 news anchor Karen L. Adams has pledged to make a $1 million donation to her endowment to support female students at the University of Rhode Island’s Harrington School of Communication and Media.
The Karen L. Adams Scholarship in Communications was established in 2016 to benefit Rhode Island women who maintain a GPA of 3.0 or higher.
Adams’ gift is “both an inspiring gesture or generosity and a resounding validation of our shared commitment to educate a new generation of women leaders who will work across a range of media platforms in their respective communication careers,” said Adam Roth, Harrington School director and URI College of Arts and Sciences associate dean.
Adams, a Missouri native who lives in Narragansett, was an evening news anchor for WPRI from 1989 to 2010. Before that, she was a news director and anchor in Charlotte, N.C.
“It is important for me to give to URI rather than another institution,” Adams said, “because Rhode Island is where I spent the bulk of my career, and I feel compelled to give back to the flagship university.”
In 2010, Adams received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from URI in recognition of her commitment to public service.
