Kate Grant

Kate Grant is an American nonprofit leader and writer. She is the founding CEO of Fistula Foundation, a global nonprofit organization that provides surgical treatment for the childbirth injury obstetric fistula. The organization funds more fistula surgeries than any organization in the world not taking government funding; their goal is to eliminate the suffering caused by the injury, which untreated leaves women incontinent and too frequently social outcasts. An estimated one million women suffer from fistula and fewer than 20,000 were treated last year.^[1] Over the last decade, the Foundation has raised more than $50 million and supported treatment in 31 countries. Fistula Foundation is a recommended charity of ethicist Peter Singer’s The Life You Can Save. In addition, it has earned 11 consecutive 4-star ratings^[2] from Charity Navigator, an A rating^[3] from Charity Watch.

Early life and education

Kate Grant was born in the U.S., the eldest of four children; her father was a research scientist with NASA at Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, and her mother an elementary school teacher and later administrator at Zilog; she was raised in Sunnyvale, California. She earned a BS from the University of California at Berkeley, graduating with honors from the Haas School of Business, and earned a Master in Public Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, with a focus on International Development. In 2016 she was interviewed for the University's Career & Life Vision Conversations series.

Career

Grant started her career with the advertising agency, Leo Burnett, in Chicago, as part of their account management training program, and then joined Foote, Cone and Belding (FCB) in San Francisco, rising to Account Director. She managed multi-million dollar accounts for clients such as Levi Strauss, McDonald’s and Clorox, but an extended seven month trip through developing countries in north Africa and Asia on a leave of absence from FCB changed her career trajectory dramatically. Grant left her advertising career to pursue a career to help eliminate global poverty.

During graduate school she worked in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and in Dakar, Senegal, on aid projects. After graduating from Princeton, Grant served on the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee staff, for then chairman Lee Hamilton, with a policy portfolio including Population, Health and Gender Issues. From there, she went to USAID, serving as the Deputy Chief of Staff and Special Assistant to USAID Director, Brian Atwood. She also served as a consultant to International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Women’s Funding Network and the USAID Mission in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and as director of nonprofit programs at Network for Good.

In 2004, Grant joined the board of Fistula Foundation, and in 2005 was appointed as its first CEO. She’s led the Foundation from a focus on one hospital in one country, the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia, to a global operation, having supported programs in 31 countries. The Foundation has offices in San Jose, California, Nairobi, Kenya and Mpika, Zambia. She’s formed key partnerships with corporate leaders Johnson & Johnson and Astellas Pharma EMEA. She’s the architect of a pathbreaking program in Kenya, Action on Fistula, creating the first dedicated fistula treatment network throughout the country. The program recently completed its first phase, treating double the number of women the program initially set out to treat, as reported by Reuters.^[4] In addition, Grant has built partnerships with key NGO leaders, such as Women and Health Alliance and International and the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Fistula Foundation is the largest funder of fistula surgeon training globally.

Grant has also formed partnerships with high-profile individuals that have supported Fistula Foundation in a number of ways. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has written several articles highlighting obstetric fistula^[5] and included Fistula Foundation in the 2012 campaign, Half the Sky Movement, a campaign accompanying the PBS release of the documentary, "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide," based on the book he co-authored with Sheryl WuDunn. Ethicist and Princeton professor Peter Singer has recommended Fistula Foundation through his book The Life You Can Save and organization of the same name, which recommends and raises funds for 18 top charities,^[6] including Fistula Foundation, that work to improve the lives of people living in extreme poverty. Comedian Louis CK has long been a public supporter of Fistula Foundation, choosing the charity as the recipient of his winning Power Players Jeopardy! appearance^[7] and wearing a Fistula Foundation t-shirt as host of Saturday Night Live on April 8, 2017.

In 2014, the American Marketing Association (AMA) awarded Grant the Nonprofit Marketer of the Year award.^[8] She was the eighth nonprofit executive to receive this honor in the AMA’s history.

Grant also appears in the media frequently, having been interviewed by Reuters,^[9] Newsweek,^[10] Chronicle of Philanthropy,^[11] USA Today,^[12] Africa54,^[13] The Guardian,^[14] Voice of America^[15] and other publications.

Writing and Public Speaking

Grant is a regular commentator^[16] for the Huffington Post, since 2011. Her pieces focus on the health of women in developing countries, and how poverty has a disproportionately negative impact on women and girls. She has authored pieces for The Guardian^[17] and The Lancet.^[18] In addition, Grant has delivered talks at Princeton University ^[19] and speaks at public events, such as the Effective Altruism Global conference at Oxford University^[20] and Q Commons^[21] in Oakland, California.

References