Katharine Marie Amato

Kathie currently serves as an Executive in Residence in the Master of Engineering Management program at the Pratt School of Engineering, where she teaches design thinking, with an emphasis on uncovering customer problems and then using technology and AI to develop meaningful solutions. Kathie also teaches negotiations, with a fucus on using skills in empathy to develop principled agreements that satisfy the needs of all participants.

Prior to making the move to full-time teaching (which she loves), Kathie served as the senior strategist for education in Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship (I&E), where she helped develop Dukeu2019s undergraduate I&E certificate. She also served as an associate dean at Dukeu2019s Fuqua School of Business, where she managed the creation and launch of a one-year masteru2019s degree program, as well as the redesign and implementation of Fuqua's Executive MBA programs.

Kathie has an extensive background in higher education, marketing, and publishing. The link which ties her experience together is a strong emphasis on entrepreneurship. Before coming to Duke in 2006, she founded and managed a publishing company, AD Productions, Inc., and she was the founding director of Darden Business Publishing at the University of Virginiau2019s Darden School of Business.

Kathie began her career in brand management with General Mills, where she managed the development of a number of new products, as well as General Millsu2019 entry into several new product categories. She also worked at AT&T in a range of marketing and sales management roles and served as vice president of marketing for a company specializing in office connectivity products.

Kathie has an MBA from the University of Virginiau2019s Darden School and a bacheloru2019s degree from Wake Forest University.