Cynthia Patterson
Senior Consultant
Cynthia.Patterson@academicsearch.org
Dr. Cynthia Patterson joined Academic Search in 2018, after over thirty-five years in multiple leadership positions within education, including serving as a Vice President of Academic Affairs, Chief Student Affairs Officer, and Dean of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Patterson also brings unique experience and expertise in educational technology, having served as a Vice-President for two K12 educational technology companies, and as a Senior Vice President for a data analytics firm.
Within higher education, Dr. Patterson has led major academic initiatives at several institutions and brings a wealth of expertise in strategic planning, curriculum, liberal and professional education, assessment, accreditation, global studies, and faculty development. During her tenure at Lynn University, Dr. Patterson led a university-wide initiative resulting in the creation of a new core curriculum, the Dialogues of Learning, that received national recognition from both the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and Inside Higher Education.
As a former chief student affairs officer and dean, she possesses a deep appreciation for the importance of co-curricular life to student engagement and retention. Her extensive knowledge of student life policies and practices includes over ten years’ experience as an Associate Athletic Director at two Division I universities overseeing the academic and student support services for student athletes while also serving as the chief NCAA compliance officer.
In 2011, Dr. Patterson joined the senior leadership team of Middlebury Interactive Languages (MIL), a joint venture between Middlebury College and K12 Inc., created to develop online world language courses for the K-12 market. During her five years with MIL, Dr. Patterson served as Vice President of Academic Services and Senior Vice President of Operations, directly supervising Client Services, Instructional Services, Implementation Services, Technology Support, and Content Development Departments; including over 20 full-time staff and over 50 part-time teachers. Dr. Patterson then moved into a leadership role as Vice President for Client Services at Fuel Education, a division of K12 Inc., to oversee the implementation of products and services for over 1200 districts and schools with annual revenue over $105 million. More recently, Dr. Patterson served as a Senior Vice President for a data analytics firm, overseeing the professional services engineering team and coordinating cross-functional operations, including data imagery analytics.
Dr. Patterson earned her bachelor’s degree from Rollins College and her doctorate in American History from Northwestern University.
