Within every organization that I have ever worked with, there is always an abundance of great ideas, expertise, talent and dedication. And if that was all that was present, effortless result would be pouring out in every direction.  Unfortunately, we often find ourselves limited by money, time, and knowledge of how to leverage the available resources to move projects forward.

As I look back on my resume I see an odd collection of ventures that carry a common theme that looks like this:  Kate gets inspired by someone else’s great idea or desire for change.  Kate then teams up with that person or organization to DO something.  My roll in the doing has always been to organize the details, remove obstacles, and to establish an environment and set of systems that support long term sustainability. Doing this has been my greatest joy and challenge. My roll has lead me to acquire skills in grant writing,  fundraising, budget planning, educational theory and workshop development as well as a host of obscure skills such as reading a quasar spectrum. 

In the late 90’s, I organized and lead the team that established the first Wisconsin Envirothon competition for high school students. Soon after that program was established I found myself assisting with the founding of a small observatory in Door County Wisconsin. I then took on the leadership roll to develop programs and regular observing events for schools and the public. More recently, I have worked with a number of teams to deliver the educational and public outreach components of high level astronomy research projects.  In terms of leadership, the key is that these efforts have continued.  I work very consciously to set systems in place that make it possible and fulfilling for people to contribute to the long term success of whatever project I work with.