Dr. Cathy Kemper-Pelle is President Emeritus of Rogue Community College and a first-generation community college graduate. During her career in Texas and Oregon, Dr. Kemper-Pelle served as adjunct and full-time faculty, department chair, academic dean, institutional research and accreditation dean, academic vice president, and college president/CEO.
She has been directly involved with Achieving the Dream since 2007. Her achievements include implementation of Guided Pathways, improved gateway English and math completion, significant increases in Hispanic student enrollment and completion, the launch of programs to address student homelessness and hunger, improvement of K-12 partnerships, startup of a department of institutional research, and the launches of college-wide data dashboards and a teaching and learning center.
The RCC Board of Education recognized Dr. Kemper-Pelle in 2022 with emeritus status for her accomplishments as president. She was recognized in 2019 by Rogue Workforce Partnership as a Workforce Champion and by Southern Oregon Regional Economic Development, Inc. for co-creating the Southern Oregon Higher Education Consortium. Under her leadership, RCC was a Bellwether Award finalist in 2019 for outstanding work in adult basic skills and in 2021 for moving students out of multigenerational poverty through RCC’s Southern Oregon Health Occupation Poverty Elimination (SOHOPE) work.
Past Experience:
President and CEO | Rogue Community College (RCC)
Professor of Practice | John E. Roueche Center for Community College Leadership at Kansas State University