President, Central New Mexico Community College
Nominee: Carolyn Witt Jones
Dr. Katharine W. Winograd was elected president of Central New Mexico Community College by the CNM Governing Board with a unanimous 7-0 vote. She officially began her tenure as president on July 1, 2007.
Dr. Winograd is the first female president of the college, which recently became the largest postsecondary institution in the state with nearly 25,000 students enrolled in college-credit courses. She is a highly respected leader in the New Mexico higher education community and a strong proponent for student success, education reform, educational collaboration and building stronger partnerships with business and community organizations.
Within the first two months of her presidency, Dr. Winograd led CNM into a landmark memorandum of agreement with the University of New Mexico that set the stage for a new era of higher education in New Mexico. The agreement paved the way for students to simultaneously access services from both of the institutions through a wide variety of initiatives and streamlined processes aimed at increasing pathways for student success. A year later, she was instrumental in forging another historic memorandum of agreement between CNM, UNM and Albuquerque Public Schools, one of the country’s largest public school systems.
From 1980-96, Dr. Winograd was a participant and leader in Kentucky’s education reform efforts while working at the Kentucky Council on Higher Education (1980-83), the University of Louisville (1983-95) and Fayette County Public Schools (1995-96). She has served CNM since 1997. Before being elevated to president, she was vice president for Planning and Budget.
Dr. Winograd earned her bachelor’s degrees in psychology and therapeutic recreation from Georgetown College in Georgetown, Ky. She holds a master’s degree in higher education administration from the University of Louisville and a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of New Mexico.
