Karen Kohanowich

Karen Kohanowich
Karen Kohanowich wearing a Mark V diving rig during her service in the U.S. Navy.
Nationality	American
Education	B.S., Geology, Vanderbilt University; M.S., Air Ocean Science, Naval Postgraduate School; M.S., Environmental Science and Policy, Johns Hopkins University; PhD, Environmental Science and Policy, George Mason University;
Employer	National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Known for	U.S. Navy Salvage Diver, Aquanaut

Karen Kohanowich is a retired U.S. Naval officer and ocean research and technology program manager for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research (OER). She was NOAA's Acting Director of the National Undersea Research Program (NURP) from 2006 to 2009, and served in various roles at OER, including Acting Deputy and Undersea Technology director, until retiring in 2018. In July 2006, she became an aquanaut on the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations 10 (NEEMO 10) crew.^[1][2]

Before NOAA, Kohanowich served as a salvage diving officer and oceanographer in the United States Navy for 23 years, retiring at the rank of Commander.^[2][3][4] Kohanowich later commented, "What really got me into diving was that the standards for women were the same [as for men]. Women had to do the same number of sit-ups and push-ups. They had to climb up and down the dive ladders wearing the same 200-pound Mark V dive system."^[5]