Katherine Maher

**Katherine Roberts Maher** (born April 18, 1983) is a former chief executive officer and executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation.
Before this, she was their chief communications officer.

## Early life and education

Maher grew up in Wilton, Connecticut.
She went to Wilton High School.

In 2003, Maher graduated from the Arabic Language Institute's Arabic Language Intensive Program of The American University in Cairo. Maher subsequently studied at the   in Syria. During this period, she also spent time in Lebanon and Tunisia.

In 2005, Maher received a bachelor's degree from New York University in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies.

## Career

From 2007 to 2010, Maher worked at UNICEF as an innovation and communication officer.
She focused on the use of technology to improve people's lives. Maher worked on issues related to maternal health, HIV/AIDS prevention, and youth participation in technology.
One of her first projects at UNICEF involved testing MediaWiki extensions related to accessibility in Ethiopia.

From 2010 to 2011, Maher worked at the National Democratic Institute as an ICT Program Officer.

From 2011 to 2013, Maher worked as an ICT innovation specialist at the World Bank.
In 2012, Maher's Twitter feed on issues related to the Middle East was cited as being notable in its coverage of the Arab Spring.

From 2013 to 2014, Maher was advocacy director at the Washington, D.C.-based Access Now. As part of this work, she focused on the impact on people of laws about cyber security, morality, and defamation of the state that increase state censorship and reduce dissent. Access was a signatory of the Declaration of Internet Freedom.

### Wikimedia Foundation

From April 2014 to March 2016, Maher was chief communications officer of the Wikimedia Foundation. During this time, she gave an interview in _The Washington Post_ on United States copyright law.

In March 2016, Maher became interim executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation following the resignation of then executive director, Lila Tretikov. Maher was appointed executive director in June 2016. The appointment was announced by Jimmy Wales on June 24, 2016 at Wikimania 2016 in Esino Lario, Italy, effective June 23, 2016.

Maher states that she focuses on global digital inclusion as a way to improve and protect the rights of people to information through technology.

## Honors

- 2013: _The Diplomatic Courier_, Diplomatic Courier and Young Professionals in Foreign Policy. "99 Under 33" (world’s top 99 foreign policy leaders under the age of 33)

## Leadership

- 2011: Youth for Technology Foundation, Member of the Board
- 2013: Truman National Security Project, Policy Fellow, National Security Fellow, and Research Fellow, Democracy & Human Rights Initiative
- 2013: Open Technology Fund, Advisory Committee Member
- 2016: World Economic Forum, Member, Global Network Council on the Future of Human Rights
- 2018: Wikidata UK Hackathon, talk at Newspeak house
- 2018: Oxford Union, on Technology and Empire
- 2019: World Economic Forum Young Global Leader

## Personal life

Maher is based in San Francisco, California. Besides English, she also speaks Arabic, French, and German.

## Other websites

- Katherine (WMF) on Meta

## Infobox (person)

- **name**: Katherine Maher
- **image**: Katherine Maher.jpg
- **alt**: Katherine Maher in 2016
- **caption**: Maher in 2016
- **birth name**: Katherine Roberts Maher
- **birth place**: Wilton, Connecticut, Wilton, Connecticut, U.S.
- **alma mater**: New York University
- **occupation**: Business executive
- **title**: meta:Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director, Executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation
- **years active**: 2005–present