Katherine Roberts Maher ( MAR; born April 18, 1983) is an American non-profit executive. She has been the chief executive officer (CEO) and president of the National Public Radio since March 2024. Prior to NPR, she was the CEO of Web Summit and chair of the board of directors at the Signal Foundation. She is a former chief executive officer and executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation.

A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Maher worked for UNICEF, the National Democratic Institute, the World Bank and Access Now before joining the Wikimedia Foundation. She subsequently joined the Atlantic Council and the US Department of State's Foreign Affairs Policy Board.

Early life and education

Maher grew up in Wilton, Connecticut, and attended Wilton High School. Her father, Gordon Roberts Maher, worked in finance in New York City, and died in 2020. Her mother, Ceci Maher, is a former non-profit executive who was elected to the Connecticut State Senate in 2022.

After high school, Maher graduated from the Arabic Language Institute's Arabic Language Intensive Program of The American University in Cairo in 2003, which she recalled as a formative experience that developed her interest in the Middle East. Maher also studied at the Institut français d'études arabes de Damas in Syria and 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

From 2007 to 2010, Maher worked in New York City, at UNICEF, as an innovation and communication officer.
From 2010 to 2011, Maher worked at the National Democratic Institute as an ICT program officer. From 2011 to 2013, Maher worked at the World Bank as an ICT innovation specialist and consulted on technology for international development and democratization. In 2012, Maher's Twitter feed on issues related to the Middle East was noted for its coverage of the Arab Spring.

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 cybersecurity, morality, and defamation of the state that increase state censorship and reduce dissent. Access was a signatory of the Declaration of Internet Freedom.

Maher was chief communications officer of the Wikimedia Foundation from April 2014 to March 2016. She became interim executive director in March 2016 following the resignation of executive director Lila Tretikov and was appointed executive director on June 23, 2016; the position was subsequently retitled as "executive director and CEO".