Katherine Maher

Early life and education

Maher grew up in Wilton, Connecticut.

Maher attended Wilton High School. After high school, in 2003, Maher graduated from the Arabic Language Institute's Arabic Language Intensive Program (ALIN) of the American University in Cairo, which she said was a formative experience, instilling a deep love of the Middle East. Maher also studied at the Institut Francais d'Etudes Arabes de Damas (L'IFEAD) in Syria. During this period, she also spent time in Lebanon and Tunisia.

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

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.

In 2007, Maher moved back to New York City where from 2007 to 2010 she worked at UNICEF as an innovation and communication officer. She was one of the founding members of what became known as the innovation team, focusing on using 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. One of her first projects at UNICEF involved testing MediaWiki extensions related to accessibility in Ethiopia. Another project received USAid Development 2.0 Challenge grant funding to work on using mobile phones to monitor nutrition in children in Malawi.

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

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. She co-authored a chapter on "Making Government Mobile" of a World Bank publication titled Information and Communications for Development 2012: Maximizing Mobile.

From 2013 to 2014, Maher was advocacy director at the Washington, D.C.-based Access Now. 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. Access was a signatory of the Declaration of Internet Freedom.

Wikimedia Foundation

From April 2014 to March 2016, Maher was chief communications officer of the San Francisco, California-based Wikimedia Foundation. During this time, she gave an interview in The Washington Post on U.S. copyright law.

In March 2016, Maher became interim executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation following the resignation of then executive director, Lila Tretikov. 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.

In her role as executive director, Maher focuses on global digital inclusion as a way to improve and protect the rights of people to information through technology.

Honors

Leadership

Personal life

Maher is based in San Francisco, California. Besides English she speaks Arabic, French, and German.

Works and publications