To highlight the La Follette School’s Spring 2026 Eat & Greet networking series, we are featuring alumni with impressive careers in their respective fields. Last semester, students and alumni came together to explore career possibilities in higher education, local government, and the Wisconsin State Capitol. This semester, we will be exploring environmental policy, health policy, and careers in NGO’s and community organizations. In this feature, Kate Austin Stanford shares her career journey and experiences working at an NGO.
Hometown
Madison, WI
Undergraduate education
Public Health, The George Washington University
Employer
TruStage
Job title
Executive Director of the TruStage Foundation, and Senior Manager of Corporate Social Responsibility for TruStage
Start date
September 2024
Primary job responsibilities
Leading corporate giving, grantmaking, employee engagement, and community partnerships. Her work focuses on advancing economic mobility and supports TruStage’s mission to make brighter financial futures accessible to all.
What’s a common thread across your career, from the Peace Corps to leading COVID-19 response efforts? How did your education and experiences help you navigate those transitions?
The common thread across my career has always been my belief in the inherent worth and dignity of every person. That guiding value shaped my service in Guatemala, my work in public health, my leadership during the COVID‑19 response, and now my role in corporate philanthropy. I’ve always wanted my work to contribute to something larger than myself, strengthening conditions that allow people and communities to thrive.
La Follette’s training gave me tools that translate across all those spaces. This includes how to analyze systems, communicate clearly, manage resources responsibly, and design solutions that respond to real community needs. These skills have been essential during my time in public service, and now in corporate philanthropy, supporting the way I adapt, problem‑solve, and lead through complexity. I lead with optimism, curiosity, and a genuine care for people. I’m transparent and consistent, and I try to create environments where connection, honesty, and shared learning can flourish. I’m at my best when I’m solving problems alongside others, lifting community voices, and aligning strategy in ways that move us toward a more equitable and just community. These were many of the conditions I found during my time at La Follette, which contributed to the positive and valuable experience I had during graduate school.
How did your La Follette training influence the way you approached managing federal funding and equity-focused initiatives during the COVID-19 response?
My approach to managing federal funding during the COVID‑19 response was shaped by a strong sense of stewardship, a value reinforced during my time at La Follette. The level of direct funding to local public health departments during that time was unprecedented. I felt the responsibility to move those dollars quickly, to ensure the greatest impact.
La Follette classes taught me how money flows through government, so I could be strategic and innovative in the application of those funds. Under my leadership, we were the only local health department in the state to utilize FEMA funding to support vaccination efforts, including mass vaccination clinics at the Alliant Energy Center and hundreds of mobile clinics across Dane County. Our efforts led to well over 120,000 vaccinations in our community, strengthened partnerships with libraries, shelters, food pantries, faith communities, and other trusted local organizations.
Throughout this work, my focus stayed on transparency, consistency, and centering community voices. I wanted our decisions to reflect the values that guided my career, use resources wisely, repair where systems have caused harm, and create conditions that make it possible for more people to be safe, healthy, and supported.
What advice would you give to students who want to build careers that span multiple sectors like yours?
It’s important for students to know there isn’t one right path, and the skills you are building at La Follette prepare you to succeed across multiple sectors. My own journey has moved through nonprofit work, international service, academia, consulting, local government, and now corporate philanthropy. A nonlinear path can open doors you don’t even know exist yet. The technical skills I learned at La Follette show up constantly in my work. This includes strategic planning, facilitation, budgeting, quality improvement, and the ability to navigate complex systems. Those tools helped me lead the operational and financial challenges of the COVID‑19 response and continue to guide how I think about long‑term investment and community partnership at TruStage.
Equally important and valuable are people‑centered, or “soft” skills. Your capacity to listen, adapt, and stay grounded in your values will carry you as far as your technical skills. During the pandemic, my team and I moved through uncertainty, shifting demands, and roles that stretched all of us. I tried to model the same flexibility I asked from others, and leaned into kindness, patience, and steady communication. That approach helped us support one another through incredibly difficult moments, reminding me how essential it is to lead with humanity. Because I’ve worked in multiple environments, I see how transferable your skills truly are. Public service, nonprofit leadership, corporate responsibility, policy work – each of these spaces needs people who can think strategically, build trust, communicate clearly, and show up for others.
You don’t need to have everything figured out right away. Start with work that feels meaningful, build strong relationships, and stay open to opportunities that stretch your perspective or change your career path. You are graduating into a community that cares about your success. There is so much room for you to shape a career that aligns with your strengths, your curiosity, and the kind of change you want to see for your community.
NGO & Community Organization Policy Eat and Greet
To spotlight a variety of professionals and their unique paths working in NGO’s and community organizations, La Follette, supported by the Civil Society & Community Studies and the Center for Community and Nonprofit Studies, will host an NGO & Community Organization Eat & Greet on February 27 at the Michael Axelrod Collaborative Learning Hall. A career panel will share their experiences and explore career opportunities with students. Panelists include Kate Austin Stanford, Lindsay Blumer, Emma Neumann, and Saran Ouk.
– Story by MPA student Grace Florence