Katharine “Katie” Leonberger is the President and CEO of Community Resource Exchange (CRE), a nonprofit consulting firm that provides the strategies and tools needed to build sustainable, high-performing organizations that improve people’s lives and drive social change. In addition to her role leading the organization, Katie specializes in organizational development, innovation, and planning, and leads select client engagements in these areas.
Before joining CRE, Katie was a senior leader on the Government Innovation team at Bloomberg Philanthropies, where she led initiatives to promote public sector innovation and spread ideas among cities. She led and scaled Cities of Service before it spun out of the foundation in early 2014. She also developed and launched new programs, including the Mayors Challenge – a prize competition that encourages local governments to develop bold solutions to city problems that expanded abroad in 2013.
Her private sector experience includes serving as a consultant at McKinsey & Company – where she focused on organizational development and strategy for foundations and financial institutions – and a senior analyst at Cornerstone Research, an economics consulting firm.
In addition to her service on the Cities of Service board, Katie currently serves as Board Chair of Microlumbia Fund, a nonprofit impact investing fund she co-founded at Columbia Business School that invests in and provides pro bono consulting services to microfinance institutions and social enterprises.
She holds an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and an M.A. in international policy studies as well as a dual B.A. in economics and international relations with honors from Stanford University. Katie lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.