Name:	Cathy Burack
Title:	Senior Fellow, Higher Education
Department:	and Communities, Heller School for Social Policy and Management
Organization:	Brandeis University
Phone:	(781) 736-3762
Fax:	(781) 736-3773
Email:	burack [a] brandeis.edu
Address:	415 South St., MS035 Waltham, MA 02453-2728

Brief Biography:
A major focus of Cathy Burack's work over the past eighteen years has been the ways faculty, staff, students and administrators can work together to fulfill the civic missions of their colleges and universities. This has taken several forms including facilitating Think Tanks for senior campus administrators, co-coordinating and facilitating Wingspread meetings, and directing funded projects. She is a member of the National Review Board for the Scholarship of Engagement, a Campus Compact Engaged Scholar, and a former consultant for the Council of Independent Colleges' "Engaging Communities and Campuses" project. Prior to coming to Brandeis, Cathy was the Associate Director of the New England Resource Center for Higher Education (NERCHE), where she continues her affiliation as a Senior Associate. Through her work at CYC, Cathy works with colleges and universities to use evaluation to both 'prove” and 'improve” their programs; she also helped to set up the Corporation for National and Community Service Learn and Serve America LASSIE data collection system, and conducted an evaluation for Rhode Island and Massachusetts Campus Compacts. Cathy is currently co-Principal Investigator of the evaluation of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Community College Transfer Initiative, an initiative designed to enable low- and moderate-income, academically able, community college students to transfer to selective colleges and universities. Cathy holds a Bachelors degree in Psychology from the University of Rochester, and a Doctorate in Administration, Planning and Social Policy from Harvard University. Cathy's work is undergirded by her core beliefs in the power of reflective practice, collaboration, the importance of creating learning organizations, capacity building, and the development of communities and the individuals who inhabit them.

Areas of Expertise