Cassie B. Barlow is the President of the Southwestern Ohio Council for Higher Education.  This position is a culmination of a career focused on Workforce and Professional Development.  SOCHE is a non-profit consortium of 22 Universities and Colleges in Southwest Ohio focused on Faculty and Staff Professional Development and student Workforce Development through internships.  

Dr. Barlow's organization is laser focused on workforce development needs across Ohio. Dr. Barlow is familiar with leading multiple activities. She was the 88th Air Base Wing and Installation Commander, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. In that role, she commanded one of the largest air base wings in the Air Force with more than 5,000 Air Force military, civilian, and contractor employees. The wing provided support and services to one of the largest, most diverse, and most organizationally complex bases in the Air Force including a major acquisition center, research and development laboratories, a major command headquarters, an airlift wing, and the world's largest military air museum. The base is home to more than 27,000 employees and is the largest single site employer in the state of Ohio.

Dr. Barlow was commissioned in 1988 as a distinguished graduate of Georgetown University, Washington D.C. Following graduation, she attended Information Management Technical School at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss.

Dr. Barlow has served in a variety of positions in the information management, behavioral science and personnel careers fields at squadron, wing, direct reporting unit, major command, Air Force and combatant command levels. She was selected by the Air Force Institute of Technology to attend Rice University to earn a doctorate in Organizational Psychology. After graduation, she served as a behavioral scientist at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and the Air Force Academy. She was then selected to lead the analysis team for the Chief of Staff of the Air Force Developing Aerospace Leaders Program.

Dr. Barlow commanded the 355th Mission Support Squadron at Davis Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, where her squadron garnered multiple Air Combat Command and Air Force level awards. She also commanded at the group level as a Mission Support Group Commander at Royal Air Force Lakenheath. She led security, communications, civil engineering, personnel administration, services, contracting, and logistics readiness activities for the 48th Fighter Wing's F-15E/Cs and HH-60Gs, housed on RAFs Lakenheath and Feltwell, England. She also previously served as the Director of Manpower and Personnel of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and United States Northern Command, headquartered at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado.

Along with her undergraduate degree in Psychology from Georgetown University, master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from Chapman University, located in Orange County, Calif., Ph.D. from Rice University, Dr. Barlow earned a master’s in Military Operational Art and Science from Air Command and Staff College, Ala., and another Master’s Degree in National Security from Industrial College of the Armed Forces, National Defense, Washington D.C. She retired from active duty with the U.S. Air Force as Colonel in the summer of 2014.