Kathy has over forty years of experience in the education industry in both traditional publishing and the ed tech sectors. Kathy began her career as a special education teacher before moving to the private sector side of the industry. She has worked in sales, marketing and business development for DLM, IBM, The Learning Company, Grolier, Mindscape, Skillsbank, NetSchool, PLATO Learning and Pearson and the Pearson Foundation.

In addition to her work as an executive, Kathy has served on numerous education and industry boards including ISTE 100, CoSN, NSBF, SIIA, AEP/AAP, NCEA, AASA Advisory Board. She currently serves on the boards of NCTET People to People, Asia Society, Spark 101, Women s Education Project, and in 2009-2010, Kathy served as the Chair for the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21).

In 2014, Kathy retired from Pearson after being with the company for ten years. Kathy, along with her colleague, Deb deVries, founded a new global non-profit, Girls Thinking Global, which seeks to connect changemakers to girls empowerment organizations across the world. She is also serving as an industry consultant and working with several companies in the ed tech sector. She is a co-editor with Priscilla Shumway of a book called "Real Women Real Leaders" which is being published in April by Wiley Publishing. Kathy completed the Harvard Advanced Leadership Program in 2014.