GLENWOOD SPRINGS – Dr. Kathryn Regjo, currently vice president and campus dean at Colorado Mountain College Vail Valley in Edwards, has been named the college’s vice president of Academic Affairs. Regjo will start her new college-wide position at CMC’s central administrative offices in Glenwood Springs July 1.
“Kathryn is eminently qualified to be vice president of Academic Affairs and has been an accomplished leader both at CMC and prior to her arrival here,” said Dr. Carrie Besnette Hauser, the college’s president and CEO. “Over the past year she has played a key role in facilitating our strategic planning process, working with all levels of the college at all locations, and she has been an absolutely stellar leader of her campus.”
A six-month national search had been undertaken to fill the role, but was unsuccessful. Hauser then opted to look internally for the college’s next academic leader. She persuaded Regjo — who has extensive leadership experience, including as president of a small college in the East — to consider the position.
“We have been searching for a collaborative leader who is dedicated to academic quality and who is eager to collaborate with the entire college community,” said Hauser. “I am a big believer that things happen for a reason. I know that Kathryn’s colleagues will resoundingly welcome her in this new role because she has demonstrated time and time again that she has what it takes to lead successfully.”
“Kathryn is a great asset to Colorado Mountain College and is an ideal fit for the role of vice president of Academic Affairs,” said Chris Romer, the college’s trustee in Eagle County. “Her leadership at the Vail Valley campus has resulted in increased enrollment and increased community engagement, and her college-wide leadership overseeing the newly revised strategic plan for the college has prepared her for this new stage in her career.
“While we will miss Kathryn immensely at a local level,” he said, “I am thrilled for the college as a whole that she will step into this college-wide leadership role. I know she will continue to impact the college in positive ways.”
Over the next several months, Hauser and Regjo will work on a plan for interim leadership at the Vail Valley campus in Edwards, while a plan for Regjo’s replacement is developed.
“I am incredibly thankful to Kathy Kiser-Miller, vice president and campus dean of the Steamboat Springs campus, who has provided leadership to the Academic Affairs division for the past several years while also leading our Steamboat Springs campus,” said Hauser. “We would not be where we are today without her, and the efforts of the entire Academic Affairs team.” After Regjo steps into her new role July 1, Kiser-Miller will focus solely on the Steamboat Springs campus.
Before joining CMC in 2015, Regjo was the president and CEO of Lincoln College of New England, a small, private residential college in Southington, Connecticut. Before joining Lincoln College, she held several positions with The Princeton Review, a national leader in providing college-bound students with test-preparation services, tutoring and admissions resources, as well as resource books and online courses. In Boulder, Colorado, she was regional vice president; in Ann Arbor, Michigan, she was executive director, director of marketing and assistant director of high school programs.
Regjo holds a Doctor of Education in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master of Business Administration from the University of Denver and a Bachelor of Arts in international business and German from Adrian College of Adrian, Michigan. She is also the recipient of the Aspen Institute’s Aspen Presidential Fellowship and studied at the Universität Heidelberg in Heidelberg, Germany.
She is currently a board member of Our Community Foundation, Rural Resort Workforce Development and the Vail Valley Partnership, and is a member of the Vail Valley Economic Development Advisory Council, the Vail Valley STEM Coalition, the Vail Symposium and Youth Power 365 – Girl PowHer Program. Regjo enjoys swimming, skiing, world travel, hiking and living outdoors.