Kate Grant joined Fistula Foundation as its first chief executive in 2005 and is now a senior advisor and CEO Emerita to the organization. Kate led the expansion of the Foundation from supporting one hospital in one country, Ethiopia, to its current position as the global leader in the treatment of childbirth injuries, supporting surgical treatment for women in 37 countries—more than any organization in the world. Under her leadership the Foundation’s revenue grew consistently over two decades at a yearly rate roughly 5x the nonprofit sector and earned 19 consecutive four-star ratings from Charity Navigator, placing it in the top 1% of nonprofit organizations evaluated.
Kate’s memoir, No Woman Left Behind—largely about her work building Fistula Foundation—was released in June 2025. It includes a compelling foreword by Abraham Verghese, was published by She Writes Press, and distributed by Simon and Schuster. It was a USA Today Bestseller, a PenCraft Book Award Winner, an International Book Awards Winner for Best Memoir, a Living Now Book Gold Award Winner “to commemorate world-changing books for their contributions to positive global change” and a Readers’ Favorite top Gold Award winner in Nonfiction. The book has also received five-star reviews from numerous outlets including: San Francisco Book Review, Chicago Book Review, and Literary Titan, and was selected as an Editor’s Pick by Publishers Weekly’s Booklife.
Grant led the development of a five-year strategic plan that helped garner a $15M grant from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, one of the largest gifts Scott has given to an international organization. Subsequently, under Grant’s leadership, the Foundation received significant, multi-year funding from the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies. During her tenure, she also formed partnerships with key organizations such as Astellas Pharma EMEA, Johnson & Johnson, Direct Relief, Engender Health, and The Life You Can Save (founded by Peter Singer). The Foundation consistently earned an “A” rating from Charity Watch, was named one of the top 50 charities in the United States by Consumer Reports and earned more than 800 five-star ratings on GreatNonprofits. As CEO, Kate also helped build new women’s hospitals in Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, and Tanzania, and through her leadership, drove the organization to increase the number of surgeries that it supports annually by a factor of 30. In 2014, Kate was named Nonprofit Marketer of the Year by the American Marketing Association and American Marketing Association Foundation.
Before joining the Foundation, Kate served on the House Foreign Affairs Committee staff and as special assistant and deputy chief of staff at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). She also consulted to USAID’s mission in Tanzania, the Rockefeller Foundation, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, and the Women’s Funding Network. Previously, she was an advertising executive at two leading agencies—Leo Burnett in Chicago and FCB in San Francisco—and managed campaigns for Fortune 500 companies such as Clorox, Levi Strauss, and McDonald’s. Kate has served on several boards, including the Governing Board of Graduate Alumni of Princeton University. She regularly gives presentations about the Foundation’s work and has lectured at Princeton University and Oxford University.
Kate holds a master in public affairs degree, with a focus on international development, from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, where she was elected chair of the graduate student body. She graduated with honors from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. She also completed the Executive Education Program in Nonprofit Management at Harvard Business School. Kate is currently pursuing a graduate degree in counseling psychology from Santa Clara University.