katha kissman

Katha Kissman has more than 25 years of experience managing and consulting with nonprofits. As a BoardSource senior governance consultant, Katha provides individualized board consultation and training and conducts workshops on governance issues. Katha has worked with a variety of organizations including the Boys & Girls Club of America, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Lincoln County Community Foundation, and LA Art, among others. She has particular expertise in assisting boards with compliance, fiscal management, fundraising, relations and retention, risk management, special events, strategic planning, team-building, and training.

In addition to providing governance consulting through BoardSource, Katha also serves as an interim leader, providing organizations with a short- or long-term leadership bridge, and provides nonprofit organizational development consulting. Previously, she served as Leadership America’s executive director in 1996 and 1997 and then again as its president and CEO in 2000 and 2001. She lived in the United Arab Emirates in 1998 and 1999 where she helped found the American University of Sharjah’s Continuing Education Center. Katha also helped found the American University of Kuwait’s Continuing Education Center in 2004. In 2009, Katha received the Linguistic Society of America’s Linguistic Service Award for her service as its interim executive director.

Katha currently serves or has served with the Office Depot Business Women’s Council, IONA Senior Services, the African Continuum Theatre Company, the Trans-Arab Research Institute, the New Buffalo Railroad Museum, Leadership Montgomery, the Berrien County Economic Development Commission, the Harbor Country Chamber of Commerce, the Maryland State Arts Council, the Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington, Greentree Shelter for Women, NOW, and Hexagon.

In 2006, Katha authored Taming the Troublesome Board Member and, in 2009, Trouble at the Top: The Nonprofit Board’s Guide to an Imperfect CEO (available through BoardSource). In 2015, she authored Transformational Governance: How Association Boards Achieve Extraordinary Change, published by ASAE Foundation-Jossey-Bass, which was nominated for the Alliance for Nonprofit Management’s 2016 Terry McAdam Book Award. Katha received a bachelor of science degree in public administration at the School of Public Service at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan.