Cathcart’s father earned his doctorate at UVA; Cathcart followed with his undergraduate degree; both of his children later attended as well — making the University a three-generation family institution. That connection has shaped a sustained philanthropic commitment to the University spanning more than two decades, and a broader commitment to educational opportunity that extends from the Lawn in Charlottesville to the hills of Haiti and the mountains of Cockpit Country in Jamaica.
University of Virginia — Gift Planning Council (2001–2008)
From 2001 to 2008, Cathcart served as an Advisory Board Member on the UVA Gift Planning Council, supporting the University’s $3 billion “UVA 2020” capital campaign. His work on the Council focused on developing strategy for estate planning and structured philanthropic gifts — applying his background in structured financial transactions to the University’s long-term capital formation effort.
University of Virginia — NorCal Regional Board (2018–2021)
In 2018, Cathcart became a Co-Founding Board Member of the University of Virginia’s NorCal Regional Board — one of the first regional boards established as part of UVA’s effort to deepen alumni engagement outside Virginia. He served through 2021, helping build the foundation for UVA’s $5 billion “Honor the Future” campaign — the most ambitious fundraising effort in the University’s history. The board brought together UVA alumni across the Bay Area and broader NorCal region to support recruitment, engagement, and philanthropic giving.
Vaughansfield Primary School — Cockpit Country, Jamaica (2023)
Scott Cathcart and Grace Marr — Jamaica Respect Foundation
In 2023, Scott Cathcart and Grace Marr worked with the Chief of the Trelawny-Flagstaff Maroons and the Salz family to connect Vaughansfield Primary School — a rural school deep in the mountains of Cockpit Country — to the world via Starlink. The project paired the school’s students with teenage tutors at Deerfield Academy, one of New England’s leading independent schools, creating a direct educational bridge between two communities separated by geography and circumstance.
The pilot demonstrated a simple but powerful principle: connectivity, delivered to the right place at the right time, can build dignity and expand opportunity for children who would otherwise remain invisible to the broader world. That program seeded the Jamaica Respect Foundation, which grew directly out of the relationships and community trust built during the Vaughansfield initiative.
The Starlink school connectivity program is expanding. Additional Jamaican schools are being identified for the next phase — bringing the same model of connectivity and cross-cultural tutorship to more communities across the island.
Haiti — Modular School Construction (2010)
Following the catastrophic earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010, Scott Cathcart traveled to Port-au-Prince within weeks. Inspired by the humanitarian work he witnessed for the education of impoverished children, Cathcart and his partners committed to building a new school at their own expense for 250 Haitian students.
The modular school facility was fully constructed at a building plant in Texas. Regrettably, it was never delivered — land title records for most government-owned parcels had been buried in the earthquake, making site assignment impossible to resolve. The school existed. The commitment was real. The obstacle was beyond anyone’s control.
For charitable and philanthropic inquiries, contact Cathcart here.
To view Cathcart’s professional work as a frontier founder and operator, visit scottcathcart.com.