Dr. Christine K. Cavanaugh, President
Dr. Chris Cavanaugh is President and Certified Executive Coach for Pathseekers II, Inc., a consulting and executive coaching company. Her expertise includes executive leadership in higher education, and she guides clients through personal and career development discernment, especially at pivotal times of individual and professional growth. Previously, she held several leadership positions at the University of West Florida, at the Pennsylvania eHealth Initiative as Executive Director, and at IBM.
Dr. Cavanaugh received her BS in business from the University of Maryland, and her MBA and Ed.D. from the University of West Florida. She was an American Council on Education Fellow.
Dr. Cavanaugh holds current certifications as a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC), an International Coach Federation Associate Certified Coach (ACC), a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR), a SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP), and a Certified Performance Technologist (CPT). She is also certified in the administration and interpretation of several assessment tools: Hogan, the Center for Creative Leadership, MBTI, and the Devine Group. She serves as President of the American Association of University Administrators Board of Directors.
Dr. Cavanaugh currently is an adjunct professor at Immaculata University (Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership and Administration), and at the University of Maryland Global Campus (Business Program in Leadership and Human Resources Management).
Dr. Cavanaugh is married to Dr. John Cavanaugh with whom she collaborates on topics of leadership, higher education, and aging. They jointly co-edited a three-volume series Aging in America. She is conducting an extensive research project on women's presidential leadership in colleges and universities, and has published articles, chapters, and a special issue of the Journal of Higher Education Management based on that work.
Dr. Cavanaugh’s complete c.v. is available here.
Dr. John C. Cavanaugh, Senior Consultant
Dr. John C. Cavanaugh served as President and CEO of the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area, as Chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, and as president of the University of West Florida. For over 40 years, John has been a leader in higher education policy and innovation, as well as for the application of technology. He has led statutory and regulatory reform of higher education, and is a national leader on quality assurance and accreditation. His disciplinary expertise is in gerontology and neuroscience.
John earned his B.A. in psychology with high honors from the University of Delaware, and his M.A and Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Notre Dame. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota and an American Council on Education Fellow. He received the American Council on Education Council of Fellows Mentor of the Year Award, the Eileen Tosney Award for Career Service in Higher Education from the American Association of University Administrators, and the Pensacola Area Commitment to Excellence Community Leader of the Year Award. He was also awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters (honoris causa) from Drexel University. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, a Charter Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, and a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America.
Currently, John serves as Treasurer of the board of the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA), and Treasurer of the Board of Directors for Excelencia in Education. Previously. her served as chair of the Board of Trustees for Marygrove College (Detroit), and on the Yellowstone Forever National Advisory Council, among others. He is past-president of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Board of Trustees, and has served as a Commissioner of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, and as a Commissioner of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. He has served on the executive committee of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities State Executives (NAICUSE), as member of the Board of Directors of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, as treasurer of the State Higher Education Executive Officers, as secretary-treasurer of the National Association of System Heads, and as vice chair and member of the Board of Trustees for the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL), among others.
He is the coauthor of three series of textbooks: Adult Development and Aging (with Fredda Blanchard-Fields, now in its 9th edition), Human Development: A Life-Span View (with Robert V. Kail, now in its 9th edition), and Essentials of Human Development (with Robert V. Kail, in its 2nd edition). He also co-edited the three volume series Aging in America with Dr. Christine Cavanaugh. John has authored or co-authored over100 articles and chapters on aging, higher education policy, and leadership issues.
John’s complete c.v. can be found here.