As director of forest management program development, Katie is responsible for ensuring alignment of Verra’s Forest Management team with the organization’s objective of accelerating action on climate change through high integrity standards that drive investment toward action. In this role Katie oversees the development and revision of Verra’s Improved Forest Management and Afforestation, Reforestation, and Revegetation methodologies and applicable modules and tools; and coordinates the exploration of potential updates for the forthcoming Version 5 of the VCS Program.

Katie has over 20 years of experience in forestry, climate change mitigation and adaptation, forest carbon accounting, and development of monitoring, reporting, and verification systems in over 24 countries across South America, Southeast Asia, Africa, the U.S., and the Caribbean.

Prior to joining Verra, Katie was director of the Ecosystem Services Unit of Winrock International, where they led the technical work of a team focused on employing rigorous science for practical application in international and domestic land use and climate change projects. During a 16-year tenure at Winrock, she developed and implemented approaches for measurement and monitoring of forest ecosystems and designed and conducted trainings for both US-based and international projects. Katie developed monitoring and reporting systems for forest carbon projects across the U.S.; provided technical support to the Guyana Forestry Commission in developing their REDD+ Forest Reference Level, the first submitted to the UNFCCC; and supported MRV efforts in multiple countries, including Vietnam and Liberia. She also served on the workgroup for version 3 of the Climate Action Reserve’s Forest Project Protocol and was one of the authors of Winrock’s widely-used Standard Operating Procedures for Terrestrial Carbon Measurement.

Katie has also served as a program specialist for the U.S. Forest Service Cooperative Forestry unit in Washington, D.C. and the sustainable forestry program coordinator for Appalachian Voices in Boone, NC. They passed the California State Registered Professional Forester Examination and completed the California Air Resources Board Offset Verifier course.

Katie holds an MS in Forestry from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry and an MPA from Syracuse University Maxwell School, as well as a Bachelors in biology and peace studies from Earlham.