After finishing her BGS in Classical Archaeology at University of Michigan and her doctorate in Classical Archaeology at Brown University, Catheryn Cheal taught ancient art history at California State University, Northridge from 1981 to 2004. She has numerous publications in her original field of ancient art and a book chapter, entitled "The Meaning Of Skin Color in Eighteenth Dynasty Egyptian Painting" was published by African World Press in 2004.
Continuing to teach, but adding research and campus administrative service to her role, Cathy created and directed the Office of Online Instruction at CSUN for four years. She implemented WebCT and trained and mentored faculty, campus-wide, in teaching with technology. She moved to Oakland University, Michigan as Assistant Vice President of e-Learning and Instructional Support in 2004 to manage all technology for teaching and to facilitate the creation of online courses and degree programs. Publications while at Oakland University include a book chapter entitled, "A Taxonomy Showing Relationships between Digital Learning Objects and Instructional Design" that was published in summer 2006 by Informing Science Press and an article, “Second Life: Hype or Hyperlearning” in On the Horizon, Fall 2007. Informing Science Press, also, published a chapter on “Implications of Open Source E-Portfolios” in The e-Portfolio Paradigm in 2010.
An example of local involvement and service for surrounding universities in the upper Midwest is the annual one-day conference established by Cathy and offered by eLearning at Oakland University, called The e-Cornucopia Conference. This conference emphasizes the abundance of technological choices we have for teaching online. In 2010, the theme was teaching with social media. A book resulted from this, Transformation in teaching: Social Media Strategies in Higher Education, edited by C. Cheal, J. Coughlin, and S. Moore, 2012, Informing Science Press. A third staff member created the book cover, so the project was an excellent team-building effort as well as an important academic offering for faculty. Thirty-five international authors contributed to this book, including Cathy with a chapter on Theoretical Perspectives on Social Media.
An example of national involvement is Cathy’s membership on the board of Sloan-C. This non-profit organization is the oldest supporter of online teaching in the U.S. that produces large national conferences, academic publications, and workshops and certificates for academic technology. Remaining connected to the larger academic community is important for the increasingly complicated federal and state legislation, as well as regional accreditation rules and emerging trends in the field.