New State Board of Higher Education names its executive director

The newly created State Board of Higher Education, tasked with re-imaging oversight of Pennsylvania’s colleges and universities, has named Kate Shaw as executive director.

Shaw is deputy secretary for Higher Education within the Pennsylvania Department of Education. She has a decades-long career in government, the private sector and in academia focusing on accessible, equitable and effective postsecondary education, officials said in announcing the appointment Friday.

Shaw previously provided support and guidance for higher education reform in multiple states while at HCM Strategists. For more than a decade she led Research for Action, a Philadelphia-based education research organization that conducts applied research in Pennsylvania and across the nation.

She worked in the administration of Gov. Ed Rendell and was a faculty member in Temple University’s College of Education for 10 years, where she was also a department chair.

Shaw currently serves on the the State System of Higher Education’s 20-member board of governors. That board oversees the 10 state-owned universities, including Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Western University and Slippery Rock University in Western Pennsylvania.

The new board will develop a statewide strategic plan for Pennsylvania’s campuses and work to achieve goals critical to the commonwealth, officials said.

It is tasked with curbing unnecessary competition among campuses and assisting colleges in financial difficulty.

It will also create a formula for performance-based state funding for Pennsylvania’s four state-related universities — the University of Pittsburgh, Penn State University, Temple and Lincoln universities.

Shaw could not be reached for comment Friday. A post to the board’s website quoted her response to being appointed during the board’s second meeting, held in Harrisburg on Thursday.

“It is a tremendous honor to support this first-of-its-kind Board here in Pennsylvania, and I look forward to working alongside the experienced leaders on the Board to strengthen postsecondary education and expand its capacity to serve the needs of the Commonwealth and its residents,” she said.

“A robust higher education sector providing affordable postsecondary credentials aligned to good jobs is the lynch pin of a prosperous Pennsylvania. Now is the time to work together to make this vision a reality,” Shaw added.

The new panel was created in the 2025-26 state budget, approved by the Legislature and Gov. Josh Shapiro. It’s an outgrowth of the governor’s efforts to curb rising higher education costs by working with campuses to better coordinate program growth and avoid unnecessary competition.

“Our costs are going up and our enrollment is going down. We’re not graduating enough students with the credentials we need to stay economically competitive — not next year, or the year after — but in the years to come,” Shapiro told the board’s inaugural meeting in September.