Kate Phillips-Barrasso

Guest Author

Kate Phillips-Barrasso (@kpbarrasso) is Vice President of Global Policy and Advocacy with Mercy Corps, an organization working in 40 countries around the world to help communities forge new paths to prosperity in the face of disaster, poverty, and the impacts of climate change. She has more than 15 years of experience influencing U.S. and global development and humanitarian policy.

Prior to joining Mercy Corps, Kate served as the Director of Humanitarian Policy with InterAction, during which time she led the development of policy positions and advocacy efforts of the NGO community on issues ranging from humanitarian financing, to the impact of counter-terror measures on humanitarian action to improving NGO partnership with United Nations agencies.

Previously, Kate held several roles with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) including Acting Vice President of Policy and Advocacy, and Senior Director of Global Humanitarian Policy. While at IRC, she led and coordinated policy development and engagement around the World Humanitarian Summit and the United Nations Summit on Migrants and Refugees. She also worked for several years as a Senior Policy Advisor at CARE, leading the organization’s efforts to influence the U.S government’s humanitarian and development policies. In 2015, she was nominated for the “Excellence in Advocacy Award” by the Professional Women in Advocacy Network.

Kate holds a Master of Arts in International Development Studies from The George Washington University, Elliott School of International Affairs and a Bachelor of Science from the University of California at Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources.