My story

A little bit more about my background.

Hello.

I’m Katie. Nature lover, ultra runner, deep thinker, dog mum to a wild golden retriever and fiancé to a Yorkshire farmer.

Over the past 10 years, I’ve lived and breathed the challenges of driving forward ambitious change in a local government context. I’ve designed Creating Impact to provide all of the support, tools and capacity that I wish I’d had at my fingertips.

For the story behind my career, my proudest moments, and the origins of Creating Impact, read on.

Or, if you’ve read enough, do get in touch!

Get in Touch
Becoming an Ironman!
Training in the Peak District
2 Day Lake District Ultra (100km)
Nala in the wild

Circular Beginnings

While studying for my Masters in Sustainability and Business at the University of Leeds, I was drawn to the concept of the circular economy. At a time when many organisations were tinkering round the edges of sustainability, the circular economy presented a more holistic and transformational approach.

So, in 2016, I started my career leading the ambitious Circular Peterborough initiative. In this role, I worked with partners to develop and manage innovative pilots and funding bids, created the Circular City Champions network, and worked with businesses to inspire and support them on their journey to circularity. I quickly learnt the importance of audacious goals, the power of partnership and tenacity to create projects with minimal resources.

As the city’s ambitions grew, I led the co-creation of Peterborough’s Circular City Roadmap – which provided a pathway and monitoring framework towards becoming the UK’s first circular city.

At 23, I was speaking at international conferences to share the lessons learned in the journey to co-create a circular city, from the inaugural World Circular Economy Forum in Helsinki to the People, Innovation, Nature & Creativity (PINC) Conference in the Netherlands .

Creating a Circular City Article
World Circular Economy Forum, Helsinki (2017)
Circular Peterborough Event
IET Sustainable Manufacturing Report featuring Share Peterborough

Driving Regional Climate Action

In 2018, I returned to Yorkshire to take on a new challenge: driving climate action at a regional scale, as York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership’s Low Carbon and Circular Economy Lead.

Over the subequent years, I led the co-creation and implementation of:
– York and North Yorkshire’s Local Energy Strategy
– York and North Yorkshire’s Circular Economy Strategy & Circular Yorkshire Campaign
– York and North Yorkshire’s Routemap to Carbon Negative

These strategies were developed collaboratively, and designed to be delivered collaboratively – with co-ownership across key partners in the region.

Sustainable Regions Conference, Barcelona
Facilitating the Launch Workshop for York and North Yorkshire’s Circular Economy Strategy
Presenting at the Foreign Commonwealth Office’s Sustainable Cities Event, Glasgow
Facilitating a Stakeholder Co-creation Workshop

Building Momentum: Supporting Devolution & Combined Authority Mobilisation

As the York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership’s Senior Strategy Manager for Low Carbon and Environment, I led work ranging from developing an integrated suite of Local Area Energy Plans to shaping Grow Yorkshire and establishing the Circular Towns Network.

In 2020, I started working with York and North Yorkshire’s 9 Local Authorities to develop and agree our strategic net zero and natural capital devolution asks. This included leading the development of business cases and strategic positioning with Government. In 2022, this resulted in securing a landmark £7million to drive green growth and a commitment to joint working to achieve the region’s carbon negative ambition and natural capital investment.

Our ambition, evidence-based strategies and strong partnership-working led to central Government gravitating towards York and North Yorkshire to be part of national pilot programmes, including:
– Local Net Zero Accelerator Programme
– Local Investment in Natural Capital Programme
– Defra Place-Based Pathfinder

When the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority was formally launched in early 2024, I was TUPE’d across to work as part of the new CA Team. During the CA’s first 24 months, I led the growth of an amazing team (see pictured!), continued our strong track record of delivery & securing funding, and embedded carbon-negative as a cross-cutting policy priority across functions.

York & North Yorkshire’s Carbon Negative Conference, 2025
2025 APSE Energy Award for Collaboration
Stakeholder Workshop to shape the refresh of Y&NY’s Routemap to Carbon Negative
York & North Yorkshire Carbon Negative Conference 2025
Sharing lessons learnt from devolution at UK100’s Climate Leadership Academy

The Call to Create More Impact

In 2025, as I led the refresh of York and North Yorkshire’s Routemap to Carbon Negative, the drive and passion I usually had in abundance had dwindled to what I can best describe as being on “low battery mode”.

As the national politics surrounding net zero played out in local committee rooms, the niggling questions in the back of my mind grew bigger. Are we proposing the right solutions here? Am I creating the impact I want to see in the world? And perhaps the most daunting question, am I on the right path to fulfilling my true potential?

Looking back, I realised I’d drifted a long way from where I started in the circular economy. In trying to work within existing systems, the dominant focus had become adopting new technologies. Pushing to the back of my mind the deeper changes that need to happen – the shift in values, culture and how the economy works.

Whilst technology has a significant role to play in climate action, we can’t forget the uncomfortable change that also need to happen: a drastic reduction in consumerism, moving beyond GDP as our primary measure of economic success, and slowing the pace of life so we have the space to make different choices – choices that allow us to live within our planetary boundaries.

We can’t build or grow the economy out of the triple planetary crisis we now face.

As I reflected on my journey, it felt like the right time for a new chapter, to leverage what I’d learnt working in local government to create more impact. For me, Creating Impact is about returning to a wilder, more radical approach to sustainability – working collaboratively to rethink and create new systems that can catalyse the changes we need to see in the world.

“Moving beyond gross domestic product is about measuring the things that really matter to people and their communities. GDP tells us the cost of everything, and the value of nothing”

ANTONIO GUTERRES, UN SECRETARY GENERAL