Based in Kansas City, Missouri, Kathy Walter-Mack is an experienced higher education administrator who has worked at as Metropolitan Community College (MCC)since 2009, including seven years as chief of staff to the chancellor. Kathy Walter-Mack’s achievements there include her prominent role in bringing the institution back to financial sustainability amidst a decline in attendance and revenue as well as reduced appropriations.
One aspect of this process involved an MCC IT audit and facilities review, which resulted in a consolidation of services from separate IT groups at each of the five MCC campuses to a unified "help desk" model. Volume purchasing allowed the standardization of connectivity systems and equipment, while a number of functions previously handled in-house were outsourced.
Among those areas outsourced were PeopleSoft development capacities, email system management, and enterprise application hosting. In addition, students’ wireless coverage and network was completely reimagined, with Dell offering a lease-purchase financing model that defrayed upfront infrastructure costs.
In addition, the MCC board of trustees undertook a bond refunding that achieved lower payments and set in place funds for classroom technology updates and the provision of laptops to faculty members.
