Katie is Director of Philanthropy and Campaign Operations at Durham University. She is responsible for the strategy and delivery of development activity for the University, overseeing a team working across all areas of fundraising including major gifts from individuals and organisations, legacy giving and donor relations. She also manages her own portfolio of principal gift prospects and donors and has extensive experience of cultivating and closing on significant gifts in support of strategic priorities. Katie has specific responsibility for internal leadership of a campaign linked to Durham’s 200th anniversary in 2032, working closely with the University’s Executive team and the Campaign Board.

Katie is a graduate of Newcastle University, where she completed a PhD in English Literature. She previously held management and leadership roles in Development at Newcastle and Northumbria universities, where she led on a number of significant fundraising projects and campaigns.

Mary’s focus over the last few years has been to develop York's first ever institutional campaign.  York Unlimited: the Campaign for York will raise £120M, unlock 120,000 volunteer hours and capture the insights of York graduates around the world via the innovative York Asks project. The Campaign is seeking to develop major philanthropy,  extend York's community fundraising and includes York's first global Giving Day. 

Her fundraising career began ten years ago at Newcastle University where she became Deputy Director of Development, and which she left in 2011 to take up the position of Director of Development and Alumni Engagement at the University of York. Prior to fundraising for higher education Mary spent ten years working in sales and began her career as a graduate trainee with Selfridges.

Mary has an MSc in Charity Marketing and Fundraising from the Centre for Charity Effectiveness, Cass Business School, and is a fully certified member of the Institute of Fundraising Management.