Kate manages to listen carefully, and respond thoughtfully. She is also highly task-driven with uncompromising standards. Kate not only completes her work in a timely and efficient fashion, but she does so with genuine care and concern for the client's needs.
Kate takes the time to understand cultural and institutional norms, and is a quick read on individual personalities. She has the emotional intelligence combined with the experience to gather the data, assess a situation, and create a set of tailored recommendations that will work best for that organization.
Kate has a gift for sizing up problems and suggesting solutions. When I hired her to complete a consulting project, she honed in immediately on the crux of the matter, and then came up with a well-considered and realistic path forward.
Meredith Harper Bonham '92, Ph.D.
Vice President for Student Affairs
Kenyon College | Gund Commons
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(Kate is an) excellent listener. (She) clearly identifies problems and offer solutions to them, can develop direct execution strategies, while respecting the emotions and issues personnel might have with them, and is exceptionally professional: careful with sensitive information and only will share information when appropriately helpful or necessary. She possesses both the strength and stamina required to do difficult work and stay with projects over time.
Kate is a person you can trust from start to finish. She will persevere over time to get the required results.
Kate presents as fearless and while you won’t likely see her sweat, she brings deep caring, understanding, and compassion to all with whom she works. Her wherewithal in this regard is notable
Michael Miller
Consultant and trainer
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Kate is a tireless worker who serves clients and other key constituents with great enthusiasm. I have always been impressed with her ability to “keep the main thing, the main thing” and is an efficient, positive communicator.
Nobody gets things done at a very high level of accomplishment and proficiency like (Kate does). (She does) so in a collaborative way that makes colleagues and subordinates want to work with her. That is a very rare trait. She has a great feel for people that gets buy-in – which is no small accomplishment.
She has a complete executive package – compared to almost everyone I have worked with professionally, her combination of situational approach, collaboration and task/results orientation is a rare combination that makes her extraordinarily effective. To use a phrase she like, “shit gets done!”
Tim Fitzpatrick, consultant and former Athletic Director, U.S Coast Guard Academy; CEO of the NYYBF
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Kate has significant real world, practical and professional experience. She is approachable, down to earth, and willing to do help your organization be as healthy, inclusive, efficient, and strategic as it can be.
Merritt Crowley
Vice President for Advancement
Wheaton College
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Kate is someone who works to see the big picture, and develops solutions that meet your needs, not inserting the same material into every situation. Kate is a great listener and will work to understand your organization/situation/issue. Kate's questions were particularly helpful to me, as I struggled to adequately define the problem I was trying to solve. Kate has a great sense of humor, is easygoing and fun to work with.
Kate will help you understand the larger scope of issues you are trying to address. Helping learn more about how you got there and what you need to keep doing in the future. You won't just hire Kate, you'll be establishing a friend to you and your organization!
Dr. Jim Hoppe
Vice President & Dean for Campus Life | Emerson College
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Kate McCaffrey is superb at change leadership and a stalwart for advancing institutional inclusion. I witnessed this first-hand. Despite the ruthless time demands of being a Vice-President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students, she was a lynchpin for three major advancements at Wheaton College. First, she co-chaired a year-long task force that formulated a comprehensive Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan. Second, building on the Strategic Plan, she championed an innovative structure to foster widespread institutional capacity and responsibility for inclusion. Third, she oversaw the creation of a new center to advance co-curricular conversations about social justice and democratic practice. All of this was accomplished in just 3 short years. Kate is a visionary and has much to offer any organization that wants their practice to achieve even higher echelons of excellence.
Shaya Gregory Poku
Dean for Equity, Social Justice and Community Impact, Wheaton College, MA
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Kate’s PhD research on change management provides her with the theoretical and applied foundation needed to read a situation, understand how people work, decode institutions, and get work done. Kate sees the challenges inherent in student affairs work: that burn out is real, that the landscape of higher education is contracting and changing, that institutions need people who are clear-eyed and action oriented. All of this means institutions will need someone like her: a problem solver deeply committed to institutional excellence.
Dr. Renée White
Provost, Wheaton College MA