Thompson to join CU-Boulder
Sara Thompson has been named dean of the Division of Continuing Education and vice provost for Summer Session and Outreach and Engagement at CU-Boulder and will begin her duties Aug. 15.
Thompson currently is associate provost of New Program Initiatives and dean of the Metropolitan School of Professional Studies at The Catholic University of America (CUA), Washington, D.C. She joined The Catholic University of America in 2002 as dean of the Metropolitan College and went on to create the Metropolitan School of Professional Studies and was promoted in 2008 to associate provost to lead interdisciplinary program development initiatives across the university.
She championed CUA’s first fully online degree programs and collaborated across the university to launch 15 new professional master’s programs over three years in sustainable design, biotechnology, business analysis, community and regional planning, materials sciences engineering and others. Enrollment in the Metropolitan School tripled under her leadership.
“It is a real honor to be appointed to this position, and as a proud alumna, I’m excited to return to the university that helped shape me,” Thompson said. “The knowledge and skills I acquired as a marketing student in the Leeds School of Business MBA program have been instrumental to my 20 years in higher education building academic programs that meet the needs of students in creative and innovative ways.”
Thompson has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Eastern Illinois University, an MBA from CU-Boulder and a Ph.D. in educational and industrial psychology from Marquette University.
Prior to her appointment at CUA, she was an assistant professor and director of the Business and Management Program at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Professional Studies in Business and Education from 1997 to 2000. From 1993 to 1997 she was the director of the Small Business Development Center for the University of Wisconsin’s Division of Continuing Education.
Anne Heinz, dean of Continuing Education and vice provost for Summer Session, Outreach and Engagement, will retire on June 30 after 26 years at the university.