Katherine Kempe is Senior Director for Professional Recognition and Advancement with the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) where she leads Power to the Profession, a national collaboration to establish a unified framework for the early learning profession. Kat has extensive experience working in Minnesota’s early learning community focusing on community engagement and elevating the voices of parents and early learning professionals at the state Capitol. As Senior Policy Advocate at Think Small, a multi-service nonprofit supporting Minnesota’s early learning community, Kat served as the grassroots manager for a successful statewide campaign to increase public resources to support high quality early learning. Kat is driven by a passion to create policies and systems that lead to the optimal environments to support the healthy development of children and the adults who care for them.