REACH: Knowing Your Red Thread and Its Extraordinary Ripple Effect

Online registration is currently closed - if you would like to register, please call 610.326.2900 or email melissa@tricountyareachamber.com.

Do you know what your red thread is? It's the thread within us that makes things make sense, and what pulls everything together. It's our own personal theme that defines who we are - it's our why. Dr. Karen A. Stout, President and CEO of Achieving the Dream, Inc. and President Emerita of Montgomery County Community College will help you discover your red thread and the incredible ripple effect that you can create. 

About Dr. Karen A. Stout
Since 2015, Dr. Karen A. Stout has served as president and CEO of Achieving the Dream, leading the nation's largest movement to improve success for all students, especially low-income students and students of color. Dr. Stout leads, through ATD, a network of institutions in whole-college transformation using a coaching process that is constantly informed and improved by its longstanding partnerships and practice in the field. ATD anticipates future needs and issues, leveraging knowledge through collective learning. She has received national recognition for her achievements and accomplishments in higher education innovation and leadership including Diverse: Issues in Higher Education's Leading Women, Honorary Degree from Miami Dade College, American Association for Women in Community College's Woman of the Year and Washington Monthly's 16 most innovative higher education leaders. 
Prior to ATD, Dr. Stout was president of Montgomery County Community College, where she led the college through a transformation process to improve student success. As president of the Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges, Dr. Stout led the formation of a Trustees Council to support advocacy efforts and successfully changed the 40-year Community College Act with legislation to improve operating and capital funding for the Commonwealth's 14 community colleges.  

Dr. Stout serves on several national boards including College Promise National Advisory Board and is a faculty contributor and mentor for the Aspen Institute Presidential Fellowship for Community College Excellence.  

She is a frequent national presenter on topics ranging from leadership to strategic planning to fundraising to using data to support continuous improvement. She wrote the forewords to Re-visioning Community Colleges: Positioning for Innovations and Getting the Green: Fundraising Campaigns for Community Colleges. She also wrote chapters entitled "Leading and Learning: Structures and Strategies for Accelerating Innovation" and "Navigating the Relationship Between Governing and Foundation Boards."

She holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership and a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Delaware and a master's degree in Business Administration from the University of Baltimore.