Katharine spearheads new university-wide programs and research, including the Menino Survey of Mayors, student government fellowships and multi-stakeholder conferences, and serves as Senior Personnel to a number of federally funded research grants devoted to smart cities and the urban environment. She serves on the advisory boards of the BU City Planning & Urban Affairs Program, the BU Institute for Sustainable Energy, the BU Center for Innovation in Social Work & Health, BU Spark!, the Boston Area Research Initiative, and as a Fellow with the BU Hariri Institute for Computing.
Katharine served as a Policy Advisor to the late Boston Mayor Tom Menino, where she led his work to make Boston the first city in the country to achieve pay equity for women. She created the Boston Women’s Workforce Council, a unique collaborative governance partnership, and now serves on the Council as an appointee of Mayor Marty Walsh. An enthusiastic civic entrepreneur, Katharine also launched a capital fund for child care providers, a platform for women small business owners, and the nation’s first mobile City Hall. Prior to entering public service, Katharine worked as a brand strategist and researcher for Fortune 500 companies for ten years.
She received a Masters in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she was the recipient of the Barbara Jordan Award for Women’s Leadership and the Manuel Carballo Award for her graduate thesis modeling state-run paid family leave for Massachusetts. She earned her BA from Williams College.