Katie has centered her 18-year career around inequities within the field of early childhood education and family services. Her initial experiences as an Infant/Toddler and Preschool Teacher led Katie to recognize the need to impact change through program development, curriculum instruction, and non-profit business operations. 

Katie held leadership roles, including Directorship, over the last ten years within the City of Chicago Department of Family Support Services (DFSS), Head Start programs, the YMCA, and Woodstock Community Unit School District 200 in Illinois. During her time in leadership, Katie was selected to become a state trainer where she developed and delivered professional development opportunities for seven years as an Illinois Training Network (ITN) Trainer. In this role, Katie contributed to the professional development of early educators within the state’s adaptation of the Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS), Excelerate Illinois. Katie’s mission is to lift the voices and experiences of youth and families who are marginalized through systemic oppression.

As a new resident of Denver, Katie is a current graduate student at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. Katie is pursuing her Masters of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, Contemplative Psychotherapy, Buddhist Psychology. Katie uses mindfulness practices every day, including awareness meditation and somatic experiencing. Katie is a certified Reiki practitioner and feels strongly connected to the link between energy fields studied in quantum physics. She plans to focus her counseling career working with individuals who have experienced trauma and issues related to social justice, including mass incarceration, following the school to prison pipeline.