The board of trustees of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities has named Dr. Kathleen “Kat” Linaker to serve as president of Riverland Community College in Austin. Her appointment is effective July 1.
Riverland Community College enrolls nearly 3,300 students according to the latest statistics available from the U.S. Department of Education. Women make up 55 percent of the student body.
Dr. Linaker was vice president of academics at Western Technical College in La Crosse, Wisconsin, from 2018 to 2022. Previously, she served as assistant vice president of academics and dean of the School of STEM, Health, and Natural Sciences at Mohawk Valley Community College in Utica, New York, from 2016 to 2018. Earlier she was dean of the Center for Life and Health Sciences at Mohawk Valley Community College from 2015 to 2016.
The first in her family to attend college, Dr. Linaker holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Alberta in Canada. She earned a doctor of chiropractic degree from Northwestern Health Sciences University in Bloomington, Minnesota, and a Ph.D. in higher education from Loyola University in Chicago.