Kathy Thompson’s team-oriented and collaborative style of management is the product
of 30 years of combined experience in workforce and economic development and postsecondary
education. Kathy brings an intrinsic flair for innovation, creative problem-solving,
and measured risk-taking to drive consistent bottom-line improvements and stakeholder
return. She solves problems, exceeds expectations, and ultimately grows organizations
into powerful, productive, and responsive engines that drive and deliver results.
Kathy Thompson, University of South Alabama (USA), Founding Director, Center for Innovation
in Postsecondary Education (CIPE) was approved in 2023 to serve community colleges
and universities, postsecondary partners, employers, and community partners to improve
graduation rates and workforce outcomes for first-generation, under-represented and
low-income students. Before the CIPE, Kathy was contracted with the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation (BMGF) from 2016 to 2022 to support the Historically Black Colleges
and University (HBCU) Institutional Partnership (IP)/Frontier Set (FS) sites. Before
joining the USA, Kathy served as Dean of Technical Education and Workforce Development
Bishop State Community College, an HBCU, and Executive Director of the Macon-Bibb
County Workforce Investment Board, Inc. (MBWIB, Inc.). In 2008, Virginia’s workforce
delivery system was consolidated with the Virginia Community College System. Recognized
for high-potential, Kathy was appointed Director of Postsecondary Education and Senior
Workforce Analyst and her career took a ten-fold leap in responsibility as she led
the way in creating a workforce system focused on skill development and training and
demand-driven occupations. Kathy aptly built partnerships with the 23 community colleges
in Virginia to implement career and technical education and worked with the 15 local
workforce investment boards to create a seamless workforce delivery system throughout
the state. Earlier, as Executive Policy Analyst, Governor Timothy Kaine, Governor’s
Office for Workforce Development (2006-2008), Kathy was charged with reforming the
Virginia workforce delivery system and community college certificates and degrees
to focus on employers and demand-driven jobs; to increase the accessibility of high-wage
jobs to low-income workers, and to strengthen the workforce by improving the quality
of existing jobs.
Kathy’s career includes college-level teaching experience as a professor of political
science at the University of Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University, where
she taught courses in public policy, public administration, leadership, research methods,
and women in politics with her research focused on workforce development and the intersection
with economic development and postsecondary education.
Kathy holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Administration from Virginia Commonwealth
University, Center for Public Policy; a Master of Public Administration Degree from
Auburn University; and a Bachelor of Science degree in Social Work from the University
of Alabama.
