Catherine Starghill, Esq

Catherine Frugé Starghill, Esq. is the Vice President of the New Jersey Council of County Colleges (NJCCC) and Executive Director of the New Jersey Community College Consortium for Workforce and Economic Development. She is also the former Deputy Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (NJDOL).

Catherine was named to NJBIZ’s Top 50 in Education list in both 2022 and 2023, and was named one of New Jersey’s 25 Most Influential African Americans by the South Jersey Journal in 2017 as one of the “State’s leaders who stands head and shoulders above others and boldly reflects the rich diversity and excellence of the African American community throughout the Garden State.”

As Vice President of the NJCCC and Executive Director of the Consortium, Catherine is the executive who developed and implemented the statewide New Jersey Pathways to Career Opportunities initiative with over 1,800 industry and education partners aligning education to the needs of the workforce to build a stronger economy. She hosts the annual NJ Pathways to Career Opportunities Summit in Atlantic City, NJ for over 500 industry and education partners gathered to learn from national though-leaders focused on education and workforce training pathways to build stronger state economies, innovative workforces, and economic mobility for the state’s residents.

Before her positions at the NJCCC and the Consortium, Catherine was named Deputy Commissioner of the NJDOL in October 2016. As Deputy Commissioner, she led many of the Department’s program areas including Research and Information, Income Security, and Labor Standards and Safety Enforcement. She started with the NJDOL in 2012, previously serving as Executive Director of Workforce Operations and Business Services where she oversaw the day-to-day operations of the One-Stop Career Centers and the integrated business outreach staff with other state and local workforce partners. In that role, she was responsible for more than 300 employees and a $45 million budget.

Prior to joining the NJDOL, Catherine was the Acting Director of the Division of Housing and Community Resources and Equal Employment Opportunity Officer at the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs. Much of her state government career was spent as the expert on the Open Public Records Act as Executive Director of the Government Records Council and the Privacy Study Commission.

Before joining the public sector, Catherine worked in the private sector in the Tax and Legal Services practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Corporate Finance Staff of Ford Motor Company.

Starghill simultaneously earned a Bachelor of Business Administration and Master of Accounting from the University of Michigan. She later earned a Juris Doctor degree from

Wayne State University Law School and a Six Sigma Black Belt Certification from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Catherine was married to the late Rev. Dr. Britt A. Starghill and is the mother of two children, Britt Andrew and Brie Alexandra.