While an undergraduate at Grinnell College, Katie oversaw the expansion and transformation of the Prison Writing Workshop into the Prison Project Collaborative, an volunteer program that enrolls inmates into college student-led, liberal arts-style classes at the medium-security men’s prison in Newton, Iowa. Additionally, she is was the editor of Concrete Perspectives, an anthology of prison writing, which was distributed to inmates, Grinnell College students, other state correctional institutions, and state libraries. Her final year at Grinnell, she expanded the program into the maximum security women’s prison in Mitchellville, Iowa. Katie was named a Harry S Truman scholar in 2006. She plans to pursue a career that allows her to continue to increase the presence of volunteers in prisons.

For now, however, Katie is looking forward to pursuing another passion for the upcoming year. She is heading to Thessaloniki, Greece as a Grinnell Corps Fellow to teach at Anatolia College high school.