Interview | Catherine Preston, The Inspired Leader's Summit - Inspired Leader Awardee

Meet Inspired Leader Award Winners,  Catherine Preston!

Catherine Preston currently serves as the Senior Director of Academic Advising & Transfer Services at the University of South Alabama. She is from Bowling Green, Kentucky, and earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in English Literature from The University of Mississippi and Western Kentucky University. Catherine has had the good fortune to work in several positions in higher education that have afforded her unique and challenging experiences and opportunities, specifically in conceptualizing, developing, and implementing various student programs and workshops, working with diverse student populations, helping students, parents, and faculty fully understand the importance of academic planning as it pertains to first and second-year student retention and persistence to graduation, and developing cooperative and collaborative campus-wide programs and relationships.  

Catherine helms a high-performing unit at The University of South Alabama. The Academic Advising & Transfer Services office serves students as well as other student support offices across campus. Through proactive, appreciative outreach and communication, her unit is a driving force on campus in helping South students persist into years two and three. Catherine's reporting structure and data sharing is highly respected and valued on campus, and she helps lead South in improving institutional retention. In the almost seven years of providing support for students, South has achieved record first year retention numbers, the second highest record amid a global pandemic. 

Academic Advising & Transfer Services currently serves all first-year students along with a large percentage of second-year students. The team also works with students who are interested in pursuing law school admission or a professional health field. Additionally, through the Pathway USA program, advisors work with prospective transfer students at collaborating institutions to help reduce excessive credits in their transfer to South. By adding leadership coaching to advisors' skill sets, she hopes advisors will be better equipped to assess students' strengths and needs and help students devise personalized plans of action that allow them to work towards achieving their academic and career goals. 

Catherine serves on various University committees, most notably the Student Success Team, and has been instrumental in developing many programs adopted at South, such as academic milestones, meta majors, an online advising training manual, and ROAR (Reaching Out in Absence Response).  She currently serves as the President of the Emerald Coast Academic Advising Network, an organization that connects academic advisors from across the gulf coast region for professional development and networking opportunities. She is a member of the 75,000 Degrees Talent Hub, a community-wide collaborative designed to increase postsecondary attainment by bringing together Mobile’s K-12, higher education, business, and community partners. She also created SouthALACADA, South's allied membership of NACADA - the National Academic Advising Association - which leads professional development across campus. Catherine is a Kentucky Colonel, a commission bestowed by the Governor of Kentucky for recognition of accomplishments and outstanding service to community, state, and nation. She is also certified in life coaching.