Kathleen McConnell is professor emeritus in the Department of Communication Studies at San José State University. She is the author of Advocating Heightened Education: Seeing and Inventing Educational Possibilities (Lexington Press, 2020), a qualitative study of how two alternative colleges championed the value of a college degree. Her current research looks at the resistance in the U.S. to jobs-based education and the growing interest in expanding career technical education (CTE) to meet critical workforce needs and advance equity goals. In 2021, she was selected for the inaugural City Innovate STIR Lab partnerships and paired with the City of Detroit Office of Talent Development to create a more equitable professional development system for city employees. Her administrative experience informs her research on education and assessment. In 2017, she authored SJSU’s self report for an accreditation review by WSCUC, and in 2019 she chaired the taskforce that redrafted SJSU’s goals for its General Education courses. She is the past editor-in-chief of the Review of Communication.