Catching Named to Executive Leadership Institute’s Sixth Cohort

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (Aug. 8, 2025) – Christopher C. Catching, Ed.D., North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University’s vice chancellor for Student Affairs, is among 36 University of North Carolina System representatives selected to participate in its sixth Executive Leadership Institute cohort. The 10-month institute, which was established in 2019, is designed to build the next generation of top leadership from within the UNC System.

Learning modules are designed to deepen expertise essential for success at the executive level. Five interactive and experiential immersion modules will be delivered via a hybrid of virtual and face-to-face instruction at North Carolina A&T, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and UNC Charlotte during the program. The team and individual executive coaching component will be provided in partnership with UNC Wilmington.

Graduates will have the opportunity to pay it forward as mentors for future cohorts, ensuring promising talent continues to develop across the UNC System.

Catching, who joined A&T in February following a national search, has worked to expand equity in higher education, serving students across 11 institutions in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and North Carolina. He served in leadership roles for Stockton University, Southern Connecticut State University, Hofstra University, Rutgers University and Seton Hall University.

Among his many accomplishments, Catching led a division nationally recognized as one of the “Most Promising Places to Work in Student Affairs” by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education and has extensive teaching and research experience on the subject of African American men in higher education. He was also honored by ACPA—College Student Educators International for leadership in diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging initiatives and by the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators for first-generation student initiatives. In May, he received the Distinguished Leader in Education Award from Rutgers’ Graduate School of Education (GSE) during its spring 2025 convocation when he delivered the ceremony’s keynote address.