Katherine Jacobs, Ph.D.
She/Her/Hers
CEO
I am based in: Washington, D.C. Area
My strengths are: Intuition, pattern-spotting, empathy, foresight, musicality, and cake decorating.
I identify as: Southern single mom with two amazing teenagers
Katherine Jacobs leads a global portfolio of executive search and leadership consulting engagements and manages the strategic development of our firm’s business lines and structures.
A trained psychologist, teacher, researcher, and consultant with over 25 years of leadership consulting experience both in the U.S. and abroad, Katherine guides organizations through change with particular expertise in leadership competency assessments, staff-board alignment work, founder and longtime leader transitions, and board development.
Katherine’s executive search portfolio spans the leadership infrastructure of the social sector from large national and international nonprofits and philanthropies to grassroots organizations and family foundations. Since coming to build what is now NPAG in 2007, Katherine has distinguished herself and the firm as an innovator in the search business and a leader in the national conversation about organizational diversity and equity and inclusion in hiring processes.
A Fulbright Scholar and recipient of the Herbert L. Zimmer Award for excellence in psychological research, Katherine received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Rochester while training at the Eastman School of Music as a classical cellist. She went on to receive her Ph.D. in Psychology from Georgetown University. Katherine continued her international travel both living and working in 5 countries before settling into the DC metro area. She speaks conversational German and basic Russian and Greek.
Katherine’s doctoral research focused on the psychological foundations of policy for managing cultural diversity and, in her consulting work, Katherine has brought her research to bear in NPAG’s distinguishing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as meaningful and distinct elements of talent strategy for a healthy mission-driven workforce.