The following biographical sketch was compiled at the time of induction into the Academy in 2004.

Dr. Catherine Johnson Randall is a national leader in higher education. In 1978, Dr. Randall took the reins as the director of the Computer Based Honors Program at The University of Alabama, which has become one of the most highly acclaimed undergraduate honors programs in the nation. It has been identified by the National Institute of Education as “one of the six most intriguing honors programs in the United States,” and has been used as a model throughout the country.

Dr. Randall earned a bachelors, two masters, and two Ph.D. degrees from The University of Alabama, and has been named one of the University's “31 Most Outstanding Women Graduates of the Century.” She has served as National President of Mortar Board, college senior honor society; National Executive Committee member of the National Collegiate Honors Council; and president of the Alabama Association of Women Deans, Administrators, and Counselors. She was the director of Alabama Girls State for ten years and continues as an advisor and counselor to this organization.

She serves on numerous other boards, including the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame, Alabama Archives and History Foundation, American Village, and Security Bank of Tuscaloosa, and is Chairman of the Board of Randall Publishing Company. She has also worked as a news anchor for WCFT-TV, a CBS affiliate.

Dr. Randall has served as president of The University of Alabama chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the Tuscaloosa Boys and Girls Clubs, the West Alabama Chapter of the American Red Cross, the Tuscaloosa Voluntary Action Center, Tuscaloosa Middle School PTA, and Verner Elementary School PTA.

She has served on the boards of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, the Tuscaloosa City Schools Education Foundation, FOCUS on Senior Citizens, the Alexis de Toqueville Society, and dozens of other community boards.

Dr. Randall has been named “Tuscaloosa Philanthropist of the Year” and “West Alabama Business Advocate of the Year.” She is the recipient of west Alabama's first “Women Committed To Excellence” award and the “E. Roger Sayers Award” as outstanding faculty/staff member of The University of Alabama.

Cathy Randall is the widow of Pettus Randall and the mother of three children.

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