Katherine Giscombe, PhD

Katherine Giscombe, PhD, designed and directed solutions-based change initiatives with Catalyst Supporter organizations. With a long history at Catalyst and in the corporate world, she helped others use Catalyst knowledge as they created business-driven diversity and inclusion initiatives. She led Catalyst’s groundbreaking study, Women of Color in Corporate Management: Opportunities and Barriers, and several subsequent in-depth research projects on diverse women. Drawing from this unique background, Katherine infused her work with an “insider/outsider” perspective.

Katherine has extensive corporate work experience, having supported marketing and new product development at a variety of Fortune 500 companies. She is a highly effective speaker, workshop leader, having been interviewed by National Public Radio, CNN-FN, CBS Radio, the Boston Globe, and ARISE News among others. Katherine was selected by The Network Journal as one of “25 Influential Black Women in Business” in 2005, received the 2007 “Legacy of Leadership” award from Spelman College Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement, and was named by Profiles in Diversity Journal as a “Woman Worth Watching” in 2009. She is currently on the Advisory Board for Women’s Inter-Cultural Exchange, a nonprofit organization that builds and bridges social capital among women of diverse cultures.

Katherine has a PhD in Organizational Psychology from the University of Michigan and trained at the Institute for Social Research, the world’s largest academic social science survey and research organization.