As Vice President of Research for Student Veterans of America (SVA), Dr. Chris Andrew Cate coordinates all internal and external data collection, analysis, reporting, and security along with overseeing the research strategy for the organization. He began volunteering SVA in 2010 helping in the designing and implementing the organization’s Learning and Measurement objectives, then in September of 2012, he joined SVA’s professional staff as Vice President of Research.

Dr. Cate’s focus is on providing actionable research to policy makers, stakeholders, SVA chapters, partners, and the public to help them make data-driven decisions about topics and issues affecting student veterans and the larger veteran community. As primary researcher for the Million Records Project (MRP), National Veteran Education Success Tracker (NVEST) Project, and the Life Cycle Atlas, Dr. Cate focuses on research surrounding student veterans’ post-secondary academic outcomes, exploring the impact of student veteran decisions on their education and employment outcomes, and the groundwork on the return on investment (ROI) of the GI Bill.

He graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara with a Doctorate in Special Education, Disability, and Risk Studies (2011) where his dissertation explored student veterans’ college experiences, academic performance, and their transition to and through higher education, and a Masters of Arts in Research Methodology (2009). A proud Gonzaga University alumnus, he graduated from Gonzaga University with a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Theatre Arts and English (1998) and also earned a Masters in Arts in Teaching degree with an emphasis in At-Risk Students (2000).