Q & A: Dean Catherine McCabe, School of Business and Computer Science
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Dr. Catherine McCabe, a leader in experiential education and administration, joined Curry College as the dean of the School of Business and Computer Science in 2023. Dr. McCabe, who has a Bachelor of Arts in English from Saint Anselm College, a Master of Arts in Communication Studies from Emerson College, and a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Kentucky, recently served as Dean of the Welch College of Business & Technology at Sacred Heart University and worked previously as the Associate Dean of the Sawyer Business School and Dean of Undergraduate Programs at Suffolk University.
With vast experience as an educator and administrator, Dean McCabe seeks to strategically guide the School of Business and Computer Science using Curry’s strong foundation in experiential learning with an increased emphasis on external partnerships. The School offers market-relevant undergraduate programs in accounting, business administration, computer science, marketing, public relations, and sport and recreation management, as well as graduate and 5th Year MBA Master of Science in Accounting programs. Students can also explore the School’s robust list of rigorous minors such as business analytics and information systems, coaching, finance, white-collar crime, and more.
We sat down with Dean McCabe to learn more about her background, and her vision for the recently established School of Business and Computer Science.
What drew you to Curry College?
What drew me to Curry is the mission. And what I have seen in my short time here is that the mission is lived every day. The Curry College mission statement focuses on empowering students, being an inclusive learning space, and an inclusive environment for faculty, staff, and students, whether it's your ethnicity or whether it's learning differences, and Curry really empowers the community to be successful personally and professionally. The liberal arts foundation that Curry has built its success upon is also important to me.
Curry College has a beautiful campus, has beautiful buildings, but what’s happening inside the buildings is also beautiful. Every time I walk into a building, students are happy, engaging with each other, with staff, with faculty, and this is something that really stands out to me.
What is your vision for the School of Business and Computer Science?
The vision for the School of Business and Computer Science here at Curry College really is to integrate technology and business. We aspire to be the school of choice for inclusive experiential education within business and technology-and I believe we will get there. We're going to build on the foundation of Curry's strengths, the liberal arts, the community, the focus that every student matters, and the interaction between the faculty and the students. But that next step, and something that I've already begun to do, is having conversations with community and business partners, getting their insights and their direction to help us, but also the support from the community so that we can build technologies in the space that we need to truly integrate.
What are you looking forward to most in the upcoming academic year?
I’m really looking forward to getting to know the community better- meeting with more students, faculty, staff, and engaging with them. I'm also looking forward to the changes that we know we want to make within the School of Business and Computer Science. Integrating technology and business means we’ll need to add new learning experiences. Where do we build the curriculum in all these learning experiences in a way that's going move us in the right direction? And that starts with conversations. Conversations with the community, with our students, with our staff, with our faculty. I want to get to know them, find out what their concerns are, what their aspirations are, and then be able to put that together in a strategic direction and really start moving forward.
In your previous roles, you also served as a professor. What is your favorite part about teaching?
My favorite part about teaching and being in a classroom is having discussions and interactions with the students to really learn who they are and how the content they’re learning impacts their lives. Our collective backgrounds, where we went to school, the culture of our family and our ethnicity all matters and has an impact on how we learn in the classroom. I truly enjoy getting to know students and learning about that and designing learning experiences around it.
What do you like to do in your free time?
As I've gotten older, I've become to really appreciate gardening, which I never thought I would be interested in. So, when I get the time, especially with growing vegetables, I find that really satisfying. I also love to swim and that’s usually a summertime activity too. But one thing I've done since I've been very young, seven years old, is I play the violin. At some point I'd love to join an orchestra again. Beyond that, I also spend a lot of time with family.