1. Early life and education

2. Career
     Wikimedia Foundation  

3. Honors

4. Leadership

5. Personal life

6. See also

7. Works and publications

8. References

9. External links

Early life and education

Maher grew up in Wilton, Connecticut,^[1] and attended Wilton High School.^[4] After high school, in 2003, Maher graduated from the Arabic Language Institute's Arabic Language Intensive Program of The American University in Cairo, which she said was a formative experience, instilling a deep love of the Middle East.^[5] Maher subsequently studied at the {{lang|fr|Institut français d’études arabes de Damas}} in Syria. During this period, she also spent time in Lebanon and Tunisia.^[1][6]

In 2005, Maher received a bachelor's degree from New York University in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies.^[7]

Career

After two internships, at the Council on Foreign Relations and Eurasia Group, in 2005 Maher began working at various locations of HSBC—in London, Germany, and Canada—as part of their international manager development programme.^[1]

In 2007, Maher moved back to New York City where from 2007 to 2010 she worked at UNICEF as an innovation and communication officer.^[8] She was one of the founding members of what became known as the innovation team, focusing on the use of technology to improve people's lives. As part of this position, Maher traveled globally and worked on issues related to maternal health, HIV/AIDS prevention, and youth participation in technology.^[1] One of her first projects at UNICEF involved testing MediaWiki extensions related to accessibility in Ethiopia.^[9] Another project received USAid Development 2.0 Challenge grant funding to work on the use of mobile phones to monitor nutrition in children in Malawi.^[8]

From 2010 to 2011, Maher worked at the National Democratic Institute as an ICT Program Officer, working in the field of information and communications technology (ICT).^[10]

From 2011 to 2013, Maher worked at the World Bank as an ICT innovation specialist. At the World Bank, Maher was a consultant in technology for international development and democratization, working on ICT for accountability and governance, focusing on the role of mobile phones and other technologies in facilitating civil society and institutional reform, particularly in the Middle East and Africa.^[11] She co-authored a chapter on "Making Government Mobile" of a World Bank publication titled Information and Communications for Development 2012: Maximizing Mobile.^[12] 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.^[13][14]

From 2013 to 2014, Maher was advocacy director at the Washington, D.C.-based Access Now.^[3][15] 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.^[16] Access was a signatory of the Declaration of Internet Freedom.^[11]

Wikimedia Foundation

From April 2014 to March 2016, Maher was chief communications officer of the Wikimedia Foundation.^[3][17][18] During this time, she gave an interview in The Washington Post on United States copyright law.^[19]

In March 2016, Maher became interim executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation following the resignation of then executive director, Lila Tretikov.^[15][20] 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.^[2][3]

Maher states that she focuses on global digital inclusion as a way to improve and protect the rights of people to information through technology.^[1][21]

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)^[5][22]

Leadership

• 2011: Youth for Technology Foundation, Member of the Board^[23]
• 2013: Truman National Security Project, Policy Fellow, National Security Fellow, and Research Fellow, Democracy & Human Rights Initiative^[24][25]
• 2013: Open Technology Fund, Advisory Committee Member^[26]
• 2016: World Economic Forum, Member, Global Network Council on the Future of Human Rights^[27][28]
• 2018: Wikidata UK Hackathon, talk at Newspeak house
• 2018: Oxford Union, on Technology and Empire^[29]

Personal life

Maher is based in San Francisco, California. Besides English, she also speaks Arabic, French, and German.^[5]

See also

• List of Wikipedia people

Works and publications

• {{cite news |last1 = Maher |first1 = Katherine |title = Food Fights |url = http://www.bookforum.com/inprint/1704/6687 |work = Bookforum |date = December 2010 }}
• {{cite news |last1 = Maher |first1 = Katherine |title = SXSW festival takes on board use of technology for social impact |url = https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/mar/21/sxsw-festival-technology-for-social-impact |work = The Guardian |date = March 21, 2011 }}
• {{cite news |last1 = Maher |first1 = Katherine |title = Did the Bounds of Cyber War Just Expand to Banks and Neutral States? |url = https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/08/did-the-bounds-of-cyber-war-just-expand-to-banks-and-neutral-states/261230/ |work = The Atlantic |date = August 17, 2012 }}
• {{cite book |last1 = Raja |first1 = Siddhartha |last2 = Melhem |first2 = Samia |last3 = Cruse |first3 = Matthew |last4 = Goldstein |first4 = Joshua |last5 = Maher |first5 = Katherine |last6 = Minges |first6 = Michael |last7 = Surya |first7 = Priya |url = http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTINFORMATIONANDCOMMUNICATIONANDTECHNOLOGIES/Resources/IC4D-2012-Report.pdf |title = Information and Communications for Development 2012: Maximizing Mobile |date = August 2012 |publisher = World Bank |location = Washington, DC |isbn = 978-0-8213-8991-1 |pages = 87–101 |chapter = Chapter 6: Making Government Mobile |doi = 10.1596/9780821389911_ch06 |oclc = 895048866 }}
• {{cite book |last1 = Maher |first1 = Katherine |last2 = York |first2 = Jillian C. |editor1-last = Hussain |editor1-first = Muzammil M. |editor2-last = Howard |editor2-first = Philip N. |url = https://www.routledge.com/State-Power-20-Authoritarian-Entrenchment-and-Political-Engagement-Worldwide/Hussain-Howard/p/book/9781409454694 |title = State Power 2.0: Authoritarian Entrenchment and Political Engagement Worldwide |date = 2013 |publisher = Ashgate Publishing Group |location = Burlington, VT |isbn = 978-1-4094-5469-4 |chapter = Origins of the Tunisian Internet |oclc = 940726016 }}
• {{cite news |last1 = Maher |first1 = Katherine |url = https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/02/25/the-new-westphalian-web |title = The New Westphalian Web: The future of the Internet may lie in the past. And that's not a good thing |work = Foreign Policy |date = February 25, 2013 |archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20150305065308/http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/02/25/the-new-westphalian-web |archivedate = March 5, 2015 }}
• {{cite news |last1 = Maher |first1 = Katherine |title = No, the U.S. Isn’t ‘Giving Up Control’ of the Internet |url = http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/03/control-of-the-internet-104830_Page2.html#.WHGhHrYrLXF |work = Politico |date = March 19, 2014 }}
• {{cite news |last1 = Maher |first1 = Katherine |title = The Sum of All Knowledge |url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESVQknHESuA |work = Google Talks |date = December 5, 2016 |format = Video }}
• {{cite news |last1 = Maher |first1 = Katherine |title = How Wikipedia Changed The Exchange Of Knowledge (And Where It's Going Next) |url = https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/10/04/how-wikipedia-changed-the-exchange-of-knowledge-and-where-its-going-next/#44302597cbef |publisher = Forbes |date = October 4, 2017 }}
• {{cite news |last1 = Maher |first1 = Katherine |title = Will Wikipedia Exist in 20 Years? |url = https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2017/luncheon/10/Maher |work = Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University |date = October 17, 2017 |format = Video }}

References

External links

• {{srlink|User:Katherine (WMF)|Katherine (WMF)}} on Wikipedia
• Katherine (WMF) on Meta
• {{Twitter}}
• {{C-SPAN|Katherine Maher}}

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