Dr. Rachel Bates takes over as vice president of academic affairs at Cowley College

Needing to fill the void left when Cowley College’s previous vice president of academic affairs, Dr. Michelle Schoon, took over as the president of the school, the College believes they have found the right person with the recent hiring of Dr. Rachel Bates.

Dr. Bates graduated with her doctorate in Mathematics Education from the University of Oklahoma. She was the recipient of the Social Justice Fellow at The University of Oklahoma and was a participant at the NACEP Leadership Academy.

She began her professional academic career at Cowley College when she served as an adjunct math instructor in 2005.

Dr. Bates most recently served as the associate vice chancellor for educational partnerships at the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education before returning to Cowley.

“The opportunity to return to the institution that started my professional academic career interested me in the position,” Dr. Bates said. “I know Cowley's mission and vision, and I value the role that community colleges specifically provide to students.”

Dr. Bates is unapologetically passionate about higher education and is a bold advocate for dramatically increasing college completion rates and closing institutional performance gaps by working internally and with national partners to scale highly effective structural reforms and promote policies and practices that improve student success.

In this new role, Dr. Bates looks forward to returning to campus and engaging with students and faculty.

“I would like to apply my experiences and skill set to help Cowley continue to serve students at the highest level of academic excellence,” Dr. Bates said.

Rama Peroo | Director of Institutional Communication
Cowley College
125 S. 2nd Street
Arkansas City, KS 67005
rama.peroo@cowley.edu