Katherine (Kat) Kaufmann

Kat Kaufmann is a partner in Bridgespan’s Boston office, where she co-leads the early childhood area of expertise. Kat brings personal passion to her professional work, which centers on building systems of care for our youngest children and their families. She aims to catalyze trajectory-setting investments in caregiver wellbeing and growing bodies, brains, and relationships from an early age. Since joining Bridgespan over 18 years ago, Kat has worked with a variety of nonprofit and philanthropic clients, specializing in nonprofit strategy and funder collaboratives, in addition to her focus on early childhood.

Kat has supported the leadership teams of All Our Kin, Generation Hope, HealthySteps, ChildFirst, 10,000 Women, the J.B. and M.K. Pritzker Family Foundation, and the Pediatrics Supporting Parenting Initiative among others. Kat teamed with Illinois Governor and first lady J.B. and M.K. Pritzker in setting the foundational strategy for the Pritzker Children’s Initiative and women’s health investments. She also partnered with four foundations to establish a national early childhood funder collaborative to structure breakthrough investments in kindergarten readiness.

Prior to Bridgespan, Kat was a management consultant at Bain and Company, and served as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, where she was the sixth woman to serve on board the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower. Kat earned her MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was a Baker Scholar and specialized in organizational strategy, and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with a BA in Social Studies.