College of Professional Studies
Kathleen Vouté MacDonald has been Dean of the College of
Professional Studies, St. John's University since 1994. Her
responsibilities include the leadership of over 4,500 students, 250
full time and part time faculty, college operations on two campuses
as well as the oversight of the University's Instructional
Television Center. Under her management, the college has expanded
its mission, not only adding new associate and bachelor degree
programs in real estate management, administrative studies,
hospitality management, telecommunications and television and film
but also the first graduate degree of the college, Masters in
Professional Studies in Criminal Justice Leadership. The strong
combination of traditional liberal arts, business and career
oriented majors helps to make the College of Professional Studies,
as Dr. MacDonald likes to say, the "jewel" of the University.
Dr. MacDonald's varied educational background provides a
substantial framework for the leadership role at St. John's. Her
degrees, which include a BS in Oriental Studies from Columbia
University, and MA in Sociology of Education and an Ed.D. in Higher
and Adult Education from Columbia University Teachers College, are
supplemented by Japanese language and studies as a result of
expertise developed during seven years residence in Japan. In
addition to her educational administrative roles in such
institutions as Cornell University School of Labor Relations,
Polytechnic University, and St. John's, Dr. MacDonald has taught at
a number of private and public higher education institutions
including two universities in Tokyo, Japan. Her special interest in
the field of entrepreneurship, developed during the completion of
her MBA in Management, led her to begin a successful
entrepreneurial venture, Colleges/Careers, Inc. This business,
owned and operated by Dr. MacDonald, offered professional academic
counseling to high school students and their parents.
The wide range of Dean MacDonald's knowledge and her
professional experience in New York, California and Tokyo have
greatly contributed to the recent expansions in the College of
Professional Studies. Both professionally and personally, Dean
MacDonald has remained committed to higher education.