For more than 20 years, Catherine has worked to transform the systems that enable sex and
labor trafficking. She spent the first years of her career working in humanitarian disasters and
war zones to prevent trafficking and assist child trafficking victims with Save the Children.
She went on to lead a national training program for the U.S. Justice Department to equip
law enforcement and community organizations to identify and assist trafficking victims.
At Humanity United, a philanthropy created by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, she created a
global advocacy campaign to address the plight of migrant construction workers building the
infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. After a decade of effort, Qatar became the
first country in the Persian Gulf to institute a minimum wage, and has made some of the
most progressive changes to their labor laws in the region.
In 2020, she was appointed the CEO of Polaris, where she leads an incredible team to
end sex and labor trafficking and support survivors on their journey of freedom. She serves
as a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council, appointed by Secretary Alejandro
Mayorkas in 2021. She is also a founding member of Chief, a network of more than 15,000
women executives around the world, and serves on the board of directors of the National
Asian Pacific American Women's Forum.
Catherine holds a bachelor's degree from Stanford University and a master in public health from
Columbia University. She resides in Washington DC.