Katharine Ferguson is Associate Director of the Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group and Director of CSG’s Rural and Regional Initiatives. Before joining the Aspen Institute, Katharine served in the Obama Administration as Chief of Staff for the White House Domestic Policy Council and as Chief of Staff for Rural Development at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Previously, Katharine worked on the Senate Agriculture Committee and as staff to multiple U.S. Senators on topics ranging from community economic development and economic mobility to conservation, agriculture, food, public health and nutrition.  Committed to bridging perceived divides and advancing equity, regardless of the topic at hand, Katharine is interested in the practical challenges of civic engagement, institution building, systems change and governance.

In 2018, Katharine served on the transition team for Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser. She currently serves on the Steering Committee for the Western Governor’s Association’s Reimagining the Rural West Initiative, the Service Year Alliance Rural Policy Advisory Council and was recently appointed to Colorado’s Just Transition Advisory Committee.

A graduate of Tufts University, Katharine holds an MPA from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. When not in small-town America or Washington D.C., Katharine lives and works in her hometown of Denver, Colorado.