Katherine Lorenz

Katherine Lorenz is president of the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation.

She is the leader of the Next Gen of the Giving Pledge, and Inside Philanthropy named Katherine one of the most powerful heirs in philanthropy in 2021.

Previously, she served as senior advisor for the National Center for Family Philanthropy and deputy director for the Institute for Philanthropy. Before that, Lorenz lived in Oaxaca, Mexico for six years where she co-founded Puente a la Salud Comunitaria, a non-profit organization working to advance food sovereignty in rural Oaxaca. She continues to be involved with Puente’s work as an active board member. Before founding Puente, she spent two summers living in rural villages in Latin America with the volunteer program Amigos de las Américas and later served on their Program Committee and as a trustee of the Foundation for Amigos de las Americas.

Additionally, she currently serves on the boards of directors of the Environmental Defense Fund (vice-chair), Aspen Community Foundation, the Tinker Foundation, and the Endowment for Regional Sustainability Science, and formerly was a Fellow and later Board Chair at the National Center for Family Philanthropy, Board Chair of The Philanthropy Workshop, a board member of Exponent Philanthropy, Resource Generation, the Amaranth Institute, and a member of the National Academies’ Roundtable of Science and Technology for Sustainability. Lorenz serves on the advisory council of Boldly Go Philanthropy, the Leadership Council of the Greater Houston Community Foundation, the National Advisory Committee of USC’s Irene Hirano Inouye Philanthropic Leadership Fund, and as a senior advisor for Philanthropy for Marsh Creek Social Works.

Katherine holds a B.A. in economics and Spanish from Davidson College.