Vice President of Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL)
Kate’s passion for international development is evident in her development of impact evaluations for over 16 of Compassion International’s core programs, now being implemented globally. She currently leads a large team of Monitoring and Evaluation, Research, and experts who are charged with collecting high-quality data to improve the effectiveness of Compassion’s programs globally.
Kate holds a master’s degree in international and development economics from the University of San Francisco, and a bachelor’s, summa cum laude, in nonprofit management from the University of Pittsburgh.
After starting her career in management consulting, Kate worked in microfinance (Urwego Opportunity Bank in Rwanda and Kiva.org in San Francisco); public health and HIV (USAID in Nigeria); and youth and community development (Bloomfield Garfield Corporation in Pittsburgh).
Kate cares deeply about making rigorous research accessible to program audiences for effective program design, as well as teaching research methods to other practitioners. She has held adjunct teaching positions in Eastern University’s international development and non-profit management master’s programs. Kate has also published extensively on positive youth development and spiritual measurement in the past several years.
She sits on the Baylor University and Compassion International partnership advisory steering committee, and has contributed to Compassion’s MIT:Solve partnership in finding the most innovative advancements in early childhood development and technology.
Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Kate has lived all around the U.S., as well as in Malawi, Rwanda and Nigeria. She lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with her two sons. Kate enjoys cooking, running, pottery, and reading in her spare time.