Katie Cabral

Katie Cabral is an equity-focused researcher who is passionate about supporting students, practitioners, and other leaders throughout the California Community Colleges system to co-create inclusive, validating spaces that ensure each member of our communities thrives. Katie has worked in higher education for over a decade, serving as an institutional research, planning, and effectiveness practitioner, as well as faculty member, professional development facilitator, trainer, and coach. Since 2016, she has served as a Research and Planning Analyst at Cuyamaca College, leveraging her background in applied psychology, program evaluation, research methods, survey design, focus group facilitation, and data visualization to effectively honor and amplify the voices of individuals impacted by institutional practices, processes, and policies.

Katie’s work is intentionally inclusive and focused on increasing the accessibility and timely use of data to continuously improve the student experience inside and outside the classroom. At Cuyamaca, Katie has demonstrated strong leadership on multiple initiatives related to equity, diversity, and inclusion. She co-created the college’s longstanding Equity-Minded Teaching and Learning Institute and served as the lead researcher for evaluating Cuyamaca’s innovative math and English acceleration efforts. Additionally, Katie led faculty and counselor cohorts in the Strong Workforce Institutes, supported student services practitioners with Vision-Aligned Reporting (VAR) data collection and coding cleanup efforts, and currently serves as a coach for the statewide VAR Academy.

Beyond these initiatives, Katie has contributed to her college and district as a core member of the districtwide Equity in Employment Task Force, working to create more equitable hiring processes, and as Classified Senate President, where she has reorganized senate structures and processes to be more equitable and inclusive. Katie’s contributions have earned her recognition at the state and local levels, including receiving the California Community Colleges Classified Employee of the Year Award, the 4CS Classified Senate President Service Award, the Cuyamaca College President’s Outstanding Leadership and Service Award, and the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District’s Chancellor and Classified Senate Award.