President and Treasurer, The Cynthia & George Mitchell Foundation, Keynote Speaker
“George P. Mitchell: The Power of Individuals to Change the World”
Katherine was elected president and treasurer of the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation in January 2011. In late 2012, Forbes Magazine named Katherine "Ones to Watch" as an up-and-coming face in philanthropy.
Katherine serves on the board of directors of the Environmental Defense Fund, The Philanthropy Workshop (chair), Puente a la Salud Comunitaria, the Endowment for Regional Sustainability Science, Exponent Philanthropy, and the Amaranth Institute.
Katherine is a member of the Global Philanthropists Circle of the Synergos Institute, and sits on the Council on Foundations Committee on Family Philanthropy. She also serves on the National Academies' Roundtable of Science and Technology for Sustainability.
Katherine formerly worked as Deputy Director for the Institute for Philanthropy, whose mission is to increase effective philanthropy in the United Kingdom and internationally.
Prior to that, Katherine lived in Oaxaca, Mexico for almost six years where she co-founded Puente a la Salud Comunitaria, a non-profit organization working to advance food sovereignty in rural Oaxaca state through the integration of amaranth into the diet.
Before founding Puente, she spent two summers living in rural villages in Latin America with the volunteer program Amigos de las Américas and later served on their program committee and as a trustee of the Foundation for Amigos de las Americas.
Katherine is a frequent guest speaker on topics related to environmental sustainability, next generation philanthropy, and non-profit leadership. She holds a B.A. in Economics and Spanish from Davidson College.
