Katharine was raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and graduated from Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio with a BA in elementary education. She has taught school in Pittsburgh, Waterloo, Iowa and Wilmington, NC. She and her husband have 3 grown children and 9 grandchildren. Her interest in Malawi began in 1989 when she and her husband took a mission trip with the  Pittsburgh Presbytery. They returned to Malawi in 2005 where she taught school for a short time in Zomba. She and her husband Steven have returned many times to the village of Chul and each time she goes she is encouraged by the progress and determination of the Malawian people to work together with us to improve the quality of life for the children of rural Malawi.