Catherine Finneran

Catherine Finneran joined SEO in 2019. She is responsible for managing the college support, retention, and success components of SEO Scholars, including all college programming and advising. With a 25-person team of College Persistence professionals, the SEO Scholars, College team works with 1038 students attending more than 195 colleges around the nation and achieves a 90% college completion rate.

Prior to joining SEO, she most recently served as the Program Manager of UBS NextGen Leaders, UBS’s multi-year, $10 million initiative focused on expanding college and career success for students who are the first in their families to go to college. The cornerstone of this initiative is UBS’s partnership with SEO, where Catherine worked with the team in shepherding the 125 UBS NextGen Leaders students toward college graduation over the last four years.

Throughout her 13-year career, Catherine has worked to unlock opportunity for underrepresented students through multiple sectors including corporate philanthropy, nonprofit leadership, and teaching. Prior to taking on her role at UBS, she was the Program Director of The Posse Foundation’s New York office. Catherine began her professional career teaching high school history in the South Bronx through Teach For America. She holds a B.A. from the University of Southern California where she graduated summa cum laude.

Catherine lives in Jersey City with her husband, Stephen, and rescue puppy, Hudson.