Julie Furst-Bowe currently serves as the Academic Vice President at Chippewa Valley Technical College (CVTC), a multi-campus institution serving more than 16,000 students annually in credit and non-credit programs throughout Wisconsin. CVTC is one of colleges in the Wisconsin Technical College System and offers programs in Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources; Architecture and Construction; Business, Management and Administration; General Education; Health Sciences; Human Services; Information Technology; Law, Public Safety and Security; Liberal Arts; Manufacturing; and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
Prior to her arrival at CVTC, Dr. Furst-Bowe served as the Chancellor of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville from 2012 to 2015 and as Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Stout from 2005 to 2012. She also served as a tenured faculty member, graduate program director, department chair, associate vice chancellor and assistant chancellor for assessment and quality improvement at UW-Stout.
While at UW-Stout, Julie led efforts in accreditation and continuous quality improvement using the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. UW-Stout became the first and only university to receive the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Julie continues to be active as a senior Baldrige examiner and recently completed a term on the National Board of Overseers for the Baldrige Awards Program. She has written several articles and edited two books on the topic of quality improvement in education. She has presented and consulted on this topic in more than 15 countries. She served as a Fulbright Specialist assisting with the development of a new university in Azerbaijan and has evaluated educational institutions in China and the United Arab Emirates.
For nearly two decades, Julie has served as a liaison, mentor, peer reviewer, presenter, strategy forum facilitator and team leader for the Higher Learning Commission, the largest regional accreditation organization for post-secondary institutions in the United States. In addition, she is currently serving on the Commission’s Institutional Action Council.
Julie is active and holds leadership roles in several state, regional and national professional associations including the Association for Career and Technical Education, the Wisconsin Center for Performance Excellence and the Performance Excellence Network. She was recently elected chair-elect for the Education Division of the American Society for Quality and was recently appointed as a member of the Board of Directors for Wisconsin Literacy, Inc. She received her doctorate in Work, Family and Community Education from the University of Minnesota. Her dissertation on the use of technology in the workplace received the Award of Excellence for Outstanding Research from the International Society for Performance Improvement.
