Former WPRI news anchor Karen Adams has made a $1-million commitment toward her endowment to support female students at the University of Rhode Island Harrington School of Communication and Media, according to a news release from URI.

The Karen L. Adams Scholarship in Communications, established in 2016, benefits junior or senior female students from Rhode Island who maintain a GPA of 3.0 or higher.

Adams’ gift is “both an inspiring gesture of 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 Harrington School director and College of Arts and Sciences associate dean Adam Roth, according to the news release.

“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.”

Adams lives in Narragansett. She retired in 2010 after more than 20 years as anchor of the evening news on WPRI. A graduate of Missouri State University, she has an honorary doctorate from URI.