Ms. Cocks has been a higher education professional for over thirty years. Her work with D. Stafford & Associates focuses on Title IX investigations and training; assessment of student affairs policies, practices and services; and behavioral threat assessment. Cathy was the Director of Community Standards for the University of Connecticut for 14 years where managed the student conduct process, which included managing all Title IX cases involving student respondents and chaired the University’s student threat assessment team. Prior to that, she held several positions within Residential Life at the University of Connecticut and Roger Williams University. Through D. Stafford & Associates, Cathy has provided interim services including serving as an Interim Associate Vice Chancellor/Dean of Student Affairs. Throughout her experiences, Cathy has built collaborative relationship with internal and external law enforcement agencies around student behavioral issues and threat assessment. She has also participated in searches for supervisory and patrol level police officers.
She is a faculty member for the Association for Student Conduct Administration’s (ASCA) Donald D. Gehring Academy teaching on subjects such as ethics, governance, threat assessment, media relations, and higher education trends. She was an affiliated faculty member for many years in the University of Connecticut’s Higher Education and Student Affairs Master’s program teaching “The Law, Ethics, and Decision-Making in Student Affairs.”
Cathy has co-authored the “Philosophy of Student Conduct” chapter in the 2nd edition of “Student Conduct Practice” (2020) and was a member of the writing team for CAS Standards’ Cross-functional Framework for Identifying and Responding to Behavioral Concerns.
Cathy is a Past President of ASCA. She has also served as a Circuit representative, co-chair of the Public Policy and Legislative Issues Committee, and as a member of the ASCA Expectations of Members Task Force. Cathy has served in a variety of leadership roles in NASPA Region I.
She was the 2015 recipient of ASCA’s Donald D. Gehring Award. She is a past recipient of the NASPA Region I Mid-Level Student Affairs Professional Award and the NASPA Region I Continuous Service Award.
She earned her Master’s degree in Higher Education Administration from the University of Connecticut and Bachelor’s degree in Communications/Media from Fitchburg State University.