Katie Steen is the Manager of Public Policy & Advocacy at the Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC). At SPARC, she leads the organization's public policy, advocacy, and coalition activities to enable the open sharing of research outputs and educational materials. Previously, Katie served as a federal relations officer at the Association of American Universities (AAU) where she led advocacy for the organization on policy and funding issues ranging from humanities and foreign language education to agricultural research and Open Data.
In graduate school, Katie served as the Executive Director of the Associated Students of the University of Missouri (ASUM), the Director of National Affairs for the MU Graduate Professional Council (GPC), and the Assistant Director of Legislative Affairs for the National Association of Graduate-Professional Council (NAGPS). In these roles, she led student advocacy at both the state and federal levels on student debt, open access, and higher education funding.
Katie is a graduate of the University of Missouri where she earned her bachelor’s degree in political science and her master’s degree in public affairs with an emphasis in public policy. She is based in Chicago and Washington, D.C.
