Catherine Andersen is interim dean of enrollment management and general studies at Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C. For fifteen years she served as director of the First Year Experience. During her tenure at Gallaudet, she served as chair of the Communication and Developmental Studies Department and was interim assistant dean of the School of Developmental Studies, and has served as special assistant to the provost for strategic planning, and special assistant to the president for retention. In 1994 she was the recipient of Gallaudet University 's Distinguished Faculty of the Year and in 1997 she was chosen as one of The Outstanding First-Year Advocates by The National Resource Center on The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition. In both 2003 and 2006 she was featured in First-Year Experience and Students in Transition teleconferences on assessing first year seminars, and another on campus culture. In 2006 she was the co-liaison for the campus-wide Foundation of Excellence Project which resulted in major campus wide initiatives around the first year and beyond. She presents regularly at national and international FYE conferences, has been a member of the faculty for the Summer Institute on first-year assessment for the past three years and was an editor and primary author on a number of monographs and articles related to post secondary students. Her most recent publications include Master Student Reader (Houghton Mifflin 2006), and Why Teaching First-Year Students is Rewarding for Everyone (Peer Review Emerging Trends and Key Debates in Undergraduate Education, AAC&U Summer 2006). Her current interests include the assessment and role of Emotional Intelligence (EI) in college success and she is a master certified trainer in EI.