Catherine Engstrom
Associate Professor and Department Chair
Higher Education
E-mail: cmengstr@syr.edu
Office:
Rm. 350 Huntington Hall
Phone: 443-4763
Education:
Ph.D. University of Maryland, 1991
Cathy McHugh Engstrom currently is an associate professor in Higher Education at Syracuse University and Department Chair. She received her Ph.D. in Counseling and Personnel Services from the University of Maryland at College Park, her Master’s from the University of Vermont, and her B.A. from the College of the Holy Cross. Before entering the faculty ranks, she was a student affairs administrator for over 14 years at four different institutions, working in residence life, greek life, student activities, multicultural education, and a dean of students office.
Recently, she and her colleague Vincent Tinto have co-directed a multiyear study, funded by the Lumina Foundation for Education and Hewlett Foundation, to study the impact of learning communities and collaborative learning strategies on unprepared students in urban community and state colleges. This study seeks to provide evidence to a national audience about innovative programs that “work” and reshape current policy debates about curricular and other programs important in promoting the success of under-prepared students in higher education. Interwoven in her research work are issues of representation, diversity, power and authority, collaboration, and learning including her work on student-academic affairs partnerships, innovative pedagogies to promote student learning, particularly for the emerging and changing student populations (e.g. service- learning, learning communities), and experiences of women student affairs administrators.
Cathy has also taken her commitments to professional association work seriously. Over the past 5 year, she was Chair of the Commission of Professional Preparation (ACPA), member of the editorial board for the Journal of College Student Development, and Chair, Research Division for NASPA. In the upcoming year, she is a member of the 2007 Joint ACPA-NASPA Meeting Program Committee and Director of ACPA’s Core Council on Generation and Dissemination of Knowledge.
Curriculum vitae