Kathleen Keating

Kathleen Keating joined The Heinz Endowments in 2018 as a program associate for the Learning strategic area. Her work centers on social and education policy. She was promoted to Program Officer in December of 2020.

Before joining The Heinz Endowments, Kathleen held positions in government and regional economic development. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in economics and politics from Oberlin College in Ohio, she served as the legislative aide to a progressive state representative in Boston. She fully expected to return to Boston after completing her master’s in public policy and management from Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College, but accidentally fell in love with Pittsburgh and decided to make it her permanent home.

Kathleen worked as a project manager at Economic Development South (EDS), a small multi-municipal nonprofit, where she developed initiatives to improve the quality of life for residents of 13 South Hills communities in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. Eager to work at a more regional level, she became a policy analyst with the Pennsylvania Economy League at the Allegheny Conference on Community Development. She led research on statewide municipal financial distress, the regional education gap, and the demographic and financial conditions of low-resource communities.