Katherine Klem Gaztambide

Sr. Advisor

Sorenson Impact Center

Katherine Klem Gaztambide is a Senior Advisor at the Sorenson Impact Center. She was a Senior Policy Advisor in the Obama White House, specifically in the Office of Social Innovation & Civic Participation within the Domestic Policy Council as well as in the Office of National Drug Control Policy. At both offices, Katherine led Administration work on Pay for Success models for social impact and focused as well on the broader transition to a focus on outcomes across government. Katherine has also worked for the Social Innovation Fund at the Corporation for National & Community Service; served in the offices of then-Mayor Bloomberg in NYC and then-Governor Hickenlooper in Colorado; and, in various jobs, advanced the causes of health care reform, education reform, and tobacco control, the latter of which held her passion in Kentucky where she grew up and currently resides. Most recently, before deciding to stay at home full-time with her then-newborn at the onset of the pandemic, she was Co-Founder and Executive Director of Elevate, a policy lab at Yale University to elevate mental health as a strategy to interrupt intergenerational poverty. Katherine earned an MPP at the Harvard Kennedy School as a Dubin Fellow as well as a BA with High Distinction from the University of Virginia as a Jefferson Scholar. She gobbles up Thai and Italian food, was a contestant on Wheel of Fortune, and adores the three guys of her life: her husband, Jose; 12-pound dog, Magi; and much beloved toddler, Emiliano.