Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, Katherine fell in love with theatre when she played Gladys Herdman in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever when she was 8 at Diamond Head Theatre. She received her bachelor's degree from Princeton University where she focused on the social and political importance of literature and theatre. During a gap year before college, she taught English to Romani students in Serbia. After graduating, she returned to Serbia to explore hostilities between the Roma and Serbs through documentary theatre and support refugee aid efforts. She pursued masters degrees at the University of Oxford in Refugee and Forced Migration and Public Policy as a Rhodes Scholar. In 2018, she returned to Princeton University to lead the Religion and Forced Migration Initiative, a five-year national program funded by the Luce Foundation. In 2023, she became the Assistant Director of Communications at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops' Migration & Refugee Services. She moved to DC in 2021 with her husband who works for the Biden administration.