Katie is the Maryland State Senator for District 9, spanning Howard and Montgomery Counties. She was first elected to the Maryland Senate in 2018 and became a Deputy Majority Whip in 2023. She currently serves on the following committees and caucuses: 

• Senate Rules Committee, Chair
• Senate Education, Environment, and Energy (EEE) Committee, Member
• Joint Committee on Cybersecurity, IT, and Biotechnology, Senate Chair
• Joint Committee on Fair Practices and State Personnel Oversight, Senate Chair
• Joint Audit and Evaluation Committee, Member
• Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics, Member
• Joint Federal Action Oversight Committee, Member

Throughout her time in the Senate,  Katie has helped to guide Maryland through some of the biggest challenges of our time. Her tenure has spanned the Covid-19 pandemic, several highly-polarized election cycles, periods of economic uncertainty, and a rapidly changing technological and energy landscape. In spite of these challenges, Katie stayed focused on bringing people together to solve problems, and successfully put forth an array of bipartisan legislation addressing cybersecurity and artificial intelligence regulations, renewable energy, behavioral health, agriculture, and environmental resilience. 

Before her election to the Senate, Katie spent her career creating win-win-win opportunities for sustainable development. For 20 years, she worked with governments, businesses, communities, nonprofits, and international agencies around the world to build partnerships—creating jobs, helping companies engage key stakeholders, and training hundreds of people in partnership building. An engineer by training, she earned a B.S. in agricultural and biological engineering from Cornell University in her hometown of Ithaca, New York.

Katie brings this same commitment to innovation and partnership to public service. She understands that while differences of opinion can sometimes divide us, beneath those differences often lie shared values and common goals. By finding common ground and building on what unites us, Katie is committed to creating a stronger, more resilient Maryland where every community has the opportunity to thrive.