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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 (NJCCCWED). She has been with the NJCCC since May 2020. And, she is the former Deputy Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (NJDOL).

Starghill has been on NJBiz Top 50 List for Education in 2023 and 2022, and was named New Jersey’s 25 Most Influential African Americans by South Jersey Journal in 2017 as one of the “State’s leaders who stand head and shoulders above others and boldly reflect the rich diversity and excellence of the African American community throughout the Garden State.”

Among her many duties as Vice President of NJCCC and Executive Director of NJCCCWED, Starghill leads the $26.5 million statewide New Jersey Pathways to Career Opportunities initiative with over 1,800 industry and education partners engaged to align education to build an innovative workforce for a stronger state economy.

Starghill 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 was responsible for approximately 2,500 employees in over 40 offices statewide. 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 23 One-Stop Career Centers, over 600 employees, and an annual budget of $114 million.

Prior to joining the NJDOL, Starghill 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 (NJDCA). Much of her state government career was spent at NJDCA as the state’s expert on the Open Public Records Act serving as Executive Director of the Government Records Council and the Privacy Study Commission. Before joining the public sector, she spent many years in the private sector working in Tax and Legal Services at PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Corporate Finance Staff of Ford Motor Company. Starghill simultaneously earned Bachelor of Business Administration and Master of Accounting degrees 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 for Project Management from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

She was married to the late Rev. Dr. Britt A. Starghill and is the mother of two children, Britt II and Brie.