Kate is the Deputy Manager of BioPreferred, a program that requires all Federal Government agencies to buy and use biobased products identified by USDA. Kate co-manages the development, marketing/sales, purchasing and evaluation of biobased products for the Federal, commercial and consumer sectors to advance the market for renewable bioproducts made from agricultural materials. She pioneered the development of, and leads the implementation of, a voluntary biobased product certification and labeling effort launched by USDA in 2011. In the past seven years, 3,000 biobased products in more than 150 categories have been certified by USDA.

Previously, she was a senior sales and marketing manager for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ENERGY STAR Program. She spent 14 years at EPA initiating, growing and evaluating the ENERGY STAR brand on commercial and consumer products. She began her work in the energy and environmental arena as a technical writer for an engineering consulting firm.

Kate has a BA degree in Rhetoric and Communications from the University of Virginia.