We see an urgent need for social entrepreneurs, activists, innovators, funders, and private and public sector and civil society leaders to pool knowledge and resources, and connect and collaborate to address the root causes of inequity. If you are a courageous, compassionate and collaborative organization that is seeking to bring lasting improvements to the world, we would love to hear from you.
Katherine leads on the Atlantic Institute’s goal to catalyze the equity ecosystem through collaboration with values-aligned organizations and networks for collective learning, action and impact, locally and globally. She is a partnerships builder, ecosystem catalyst and community weaver, dedicated to advancing an equitable world and cultivating a more just future.
Katherine previously held leadership roles within U.K. government policy, international diplomacy, European civil society and higher education organizations. Prior to joining the Institute she was the founding director of the Cultural Institute / King’s Culture at King’s College London where she led a team working at the interface between the university and London’s creative and cultural sector; advancing arts and creativity as a catalyst for health and social change.
Katherine began her career directing theater and opera and continues to advocate for the arts as a platform for health, wellbeing and social change as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
The Atlantic Philanthropies, in looking to the Rhodes Trust to host the Atlantic Institute, identified a partner with a common mission and values. The Rhodes Trust has the experience, commitment, and the proven sustainability to advance those shared values, and to put them in the service of the broader Atlantic Fellows community. An aspiration in creating the partnership is that over time the Atlantic Fellows and Rhodes’ other partner programs who are also based at Rhodes House - Oxford Next Horizon Scholars, Schmidt Science Fellows, Rise, The Mandela Rhodes Foundation - will nurture and learn from each other, maximizing their influence and transformational global impact.
The legacy of Cecil Rhodes and Rhodes House is complex and contentious, but it is exactly in confronting such difficult legacies that the most honest and thought-provoking discussions can be had. We expect the Atlantic Fellows community to be a place where participants can talk about challenging histories, legacies, and contradictions, in which often lie the roots of the social justice challenges we seek to address. In the words of Nelson Mandela, we aspire to “take hands across historical divides that others may deem unbridgeable.”
The Atlantic Institute at Oxford University, provides a unique setting and opportunity to connect with a community of leading thinkers and practitioners to support the Atlantic Fellows program leadership, the Atlantic Fellows and their work toward fairer, healthier, more inclusive societies. We work closely with a wide range of university departments and staff for knowledge exchange, teaching and learning, including the Blavatnik School of Government, Saïd Business School, the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and the Africa Oxford Initiative. This knowledge, teaching and learning network extends globally to include partners such as the Rockwood Leadership Institute, the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town and Sejahtera Centre for Sustainability and Humanity at the International Islamic University Malaysia.
A number of global fellowship communities are each working to support and sustain individuals and groups who are seeking to create a more just and equitable world. Each program is successful in its own right but it is understood that the changes we all seek to make are only probable in the context of a more connected ecosystem. To this end, and beyond those partner programmes based at Rhodes House in Oxford, the Atlantic Institute is collaborating with Ford Fellows, Aspen Innovators, Obama Foundation Fellows, Roddenberry Fellows and Skoll Foundation Fellows, among others, to connect, align and collaborate.
We seek to establish strategic relationships to collaboratively address the root causes of inequities and extend the reach and impact of Atlantic Fellows’ and our partners’ work. Locally this includes organizations such as Oxford Community Action and globally, agencies such at the World Health Organization.
Get familiar with the work our the Atlantic Fellows have succeeded in. Read stories, listen to podcasts, and get to know the community. Visit the Impact Center for more.