Catherine Webb

2022-23 Aspen Rising Presidents Fellow
Dr. Catherine Webb is an experienced and student-centered leader with over two decades of demonstrated success in cultivating trusting relationships, improving institutional effectiveness, and removing barriers to equitable achievement. In her current role as vice president for the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, Webb provides leadership for ongoing quality assurance, peer review processes, and policy development. She works directly with a portfolio of 45 public and private two-year colleges with diverse institutional missions. Through this work, she has developed a holistic understanding of community college operations and gained direct experience with a broad range of successful practices for equitable student achievement, inclusive governance, and sustaining fiscal stability.

Webb held administrative and faculty positions in the California community college system. At Monterey Peninsula College, she held several faculty leadership positions before accepting a position as the founding dean of MPC's Office of Planning, Research, and Institutional Effectiveness. At Grossmont College (El Cajon, CA), Webb served as the senior dean of college planning & institutional effectiveness and provided administrative leadership for accreditation, strategic planning, program review, outcomes assessment, and equity-focused data analysis. Webb spent a decade in higher education and private industry in the greater Chicago area.

Webb earned an Ed.D. in Organizational Leadership from Brandman University, where her research and applied work focused on factors of culture and leadership that foster transformational learning and change in community colleges. She also holds an MLIS from Dominican University (River Forest, IL), an M.A. in the History and Theory of Music from the University of Chicago, and a B.A. in Music and English from Illinois Wesleyan University.