Meet Courtney Hatcher.
Armed with a sincere passion to help shape the lives of future leaders, Hatcher has a phenomenal opportunity to greatly impact students and support their success in completing a four-year degree.
Hatcher, who serves as the College’s coordinator of articulation and partnerships, is laser focused on ensuring the transfer process for students is as easy and seamless as possible.
"In addition to fostering partnerships and validating course-to-course articulation, a vitally important element is to make sure our agreements stay current," she said. "The academic world is constantly changing and we don’t want our students to get caught in the middle when something changes."
Hatcher said her role also assists students on focusing and achieving their various targeted objectives.
"Providing strong transfer and articulation agreements help students narrow down where they want to transfer, depending on their educational and career goals," she said. "Students are able to really maximize their credits. They also can save money by choosing a 3+1 program or seeking transfer institutions that offer more credit or provide appropriate scholarships."
Working with administrators, faculty and partner institutions, she is committed to developing and supporting new transfer and articulation agreements. In 2021, she worked with various colleagues across campus to foster COD’s first historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) transfer agreements with Florida A&M University and Kentucky State University. She also helped initiate the first articulation agreement by any college with North Central College in Naperville.
Hatcher knew since childhood that she wanted to work in education. Her experiences as a student who benefited from an Individualized Education Program (IEP) inspired her to pursue teaching as a career.
"I gained a deep understanding of the importance of teacher support and the impact that can have on students," she said. "I wanted to have the opportunity to have the same impact on students."
Pursuing her goal of teaching and impacting students, she graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education from Benedictine University, but her career led her to benefit students in other ways. Upon graduation, she accepted a full-time position at Benedictine as a program coordinator acting as a liaison for current and prospective students, as well as full-time and adjunct faculty. While working in the position, she earned her Master of Business Administration and Organizational Leadership degree at the university.
"The more I worked full-time, the more I realized that I wanted to stay in higher education," she said. "Working with mostly international graduate students and partnering with institutions in a variety of locations such as China and Vietnam, provided great experience and set me up well for my role at COD."
With two parents and a grandmother who worked at COD, and as a former transfer student at the College, Hatcher has spent a substantial amount of her life on COD’s campus.
"I basically grew up with College of DuPage," she said. "After working for other institutions, accepting a position at COD felt like coming home. It felt like it was meant to be."