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Katherine Giscombe, Ph.D.
Vice President, Diverse Women & Inclusion Research
kgiscombe@catalyst.org

Katherine Giscombe, Ph.D., leads the Catalyst initiative to address the specific challenges faced by diverse women around the world. These include, among other groups, women of color and Canada's "visible minorities," a legal term for specific underrepresented groups in Canadian corporations. She directed Catalyst’s groundbreaking study, Women of Color in Corporate Management: Opportunities and Barriers, and formerly led the Women of Color Issue Specialty Team, an internal group that builds knowledge on that topic. In an additional area of expertise, women MBAs, she directed Catalyst’s study entitledWomen and the MBA: Gateway to Opportunity, which examined women's and men’s experiences in top-tier MBA programs and their subsequent career outcomes.

Dr. Giscombe is a recognized national expert on issues related to women of color and the advancement of women in the workplace. She speaks on a variety of topics, including career development, glass and concrete ceiling issues, individual strategies for businesswomen, mentoring, and managing diversity. As a spokesperson and frequent speaker, she has represented Catalyst on major media programs and at national and international conferences.

Dr. Giscombe has extensive corporate work experience, having supported marketing and new product development at a variety of Fortune 500 companies for several years prior to joining Catalyst. She combines her doctoral training in Organizational Psychology from the University of Michigan and at the Institute for Social Research with her experienced-based perspective and research to design and conduct unique, comprehensive, and solutions-based actionable research. Dr. Giscombe was selected by The Network Journal as one of its 25 Influential Black Women in Business 2005 awardees. She was the recipient, in 2007, of the Spelman College Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement's Legacy of Leadership Award, which recognizes individual leadership extending across gender and race.