Cathy is an attorney with a long career in fundraising for non-profits, political campaigns, and ballot initiatives. Deeply involved in the non-profit community, Cathy has also been steeped in Missouri politics, fundraising for candidates, including herself, and ballot initiatives.
She most recently served as Director of Individual Giving and Development Operations for Parsons Dance; a professional international modern dance company based in New York City. Prior to that she served as Development Manager for Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey, the official second home of the acclaimed Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. She has been responsible for directing individual giving and has coordinated a multi-million-dollar strategic capital campaign effort. She is a creative leader in developing new innovative fundraising initiatives and designing savvy new contribution efforts.
Cathy also has extensive event planning experience including building an event budget,
reviewing contracts, working with vendors, and making decisions about public relations and promotional media buys. She has directed annual galas, speaker forums, city-wide rallies and events.
Other non-profit service includes membership on several national and local boards. Cathy is on the Advisory Board of The Breast Cancer Research Foundation; she is a fierce advocate for breast cancer research funding. As a volunteer she has raised money for BCRF for over a decade. The Huffington Post wrote an article about her, Meet the Breast Cancer Survivor Who’s Raised a Record Amount of Money for Research, highlighting her success as one of BCRF’s top independent fundraisers. She has also served as Vice President of Communications for the National Women’s Political Caucus Foundation, served on the board of the Kansas City Ballet, and had a leadership role for MOMS Demand Action.
Before her non-profit professional work, Cathy was heavily involved in Missouri politics. After serving as an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney under Claire McCaskill, she was elected Missouri State Representative, beating an incumbent and serving as Deputy Whip. She was appointed by former Governor Holden to serve on the State Council for Interstate Adult Offender Supervision and was appointed by the former Speaker as Vice Chair on the Special Committee on Child Abductions and AMBER Alert, and the Interim Committee on Institutional and Sentencing Alternatives. She then continued her career in elected public service as an At-Large City Councilmember on Kansas City’s City Council and thereafter on her local School Board as a Board of Director.
As a candidate Cathy was able to outraise her opponents and achieve at that time historical fundraising margins. Because of her earned reputation as a top fundraiser, she was asked to lead several city-wide campaign initiatives including the Public Safety Sales tax to increase funding to first responders. She has worked on several other candidate campaigns including serving as Missouri Deputy Director for a presidential campaign.
Cathy is exceptionally skilled at handling controversial public policy issues and is known as a consensus builder as she is especially adept at cultivating relationships. While in office, she had the reputation of being generously accessible and committed to her constituents. It is this same level of commitment that has continued into her non-profit work as she forges and maintains strong relationships to funders, boards of directors and key stakeholders.
Cathy earned her Juris Doctorate with distinction from UMKC School of Law and has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a minor in Sociology from the University of Missouri-Columbia (Go Tigers!). She is an avid supporter of the performing arts. Her top three favorite Broadway shows are: Once, Come From Away, and The Outsiders. Her favorite Broadway star is the incomparable Billy Porter.