Katherine joined Development's Office of Strategic Gifts Team in 2023 in the coordinator role. With both a background in business and trained in the fine arts, she brings to the table 10+yrs of experience across a variety of sectors. She prides herself on merging her business acumen and design thinking with a discerning eye for aesthetics in her work.  

As an immigrant from Colombia, Katherine moved to the USA in 1999. With conservatory training as an oil painter, she became an apprentice to a master Venezuelan artist by the time she was 14, assisting her in the studio and classroom teaching. Moving on to work as an intern project manager at United Data Technologies, she led a concept proof research design to gain greater insight into integrating technology into the K-12 curriculum. Venturing into entrepreneurship and investing in agricultural operations, she ran her family's company in landscape design in South Florida from 2010-2016 doing work for high-profile residential clientele, as well as commercial and government contracting. After 2016, she was a freelance graphic designer. 

Katherine identifies as a renaissance woman, with an unquenchable autodidactic love for learning. She is a painter and digital designer, writer and poet, concept artist and generalist, and moreso a scholarly philosopher at heart.

Currently, she resides in Harrisonburg, Virginia. She is wife to the wonderful baritone vocalist, Michael Richardson, and mother to a lively 5-year-old son.