Dr. Catherine McCabe has been in higher education for over 22 years and has recently been appointed as the Dean of the Welch College of Business and Technology at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT. Her Sacred Heart appointment will begin on July 1, 2022. She is currently the Associate Dean of the Sawyer Business School and Dean of Undergraduate Programs at Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. McCabe joined the Sawyer Business School Marketing faculty in September 2000 after earning her Doctorate in Business Administration, and Marketing from the University of Kentucky. She is also a graduate of Saint Anselm College (B.A. English) and Emerson College (M.A. Communication Studies). Catherine is a native Bostonian and currently resides in Abington, MA.
As a leader in Experiential Education, Dr. McCabe collaborates with students, faculty, administrators, alumni, and external partners to develop experiential curricula using the principles of Experiential Learning Theory, i.e., the Experiential Learning Cycle, Learning Styles and Preferences, and Educator Role Preferences. She has successfully developed experiential learning programs at the course, department, school, and university levels. These initiatives emphasize the strategic integration of experiential learning with the unique needs of an institution’s culture, resulting in increased student retention and learning, as well as increased student, faculty, and employer satisfaction.
In addition to her experience as an experiential educator and administrator, Dr. McCabe has served in leadership positions at the school and university levels. She serves on the Board of Kriola’s Professional Association and continues to do marketing consulting with for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. Dean McCabe’s scholarship currently focuses on experiential learning as a holistic, developmental process. Dr. McCabe is a learning partner and consultant with the Institute of Experiential Learning and works with educators across the globe.
