Kate Ritter

Kate joined Children’s Funding Project in 2021 as an early childhood advisor. She is now a senior manager of cost modeling and specializes in early care and education finance, policy, and cost modeling.

Since 2001, Kate has been working with state and local governments, foundations, national policy organizations, early care and education providers, and child advocacy groups to provide strategic early childhood policy and finance recommendations. Prior to joining Children’s Funding Project, Kate consulted with cities and states on creating comprehensive early childhood system cost models. Kate worked in the Illinois Governor’s Office of Early Childhood Development where she created a cost model for the state’s Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) and led the process to develop a QRIS for family child care. She was a senior policy associate at Illinois Action for Children where she negotiated legislative outcomes, developed administrative advocacy strategies, and managed statewide campaigns for policy change and increases in fiscal expenditures.

Kate has an undergraduate degree in psychology from Middlebury College and a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Chicago. She is also a certified labor & postpartum doula and has the honor of assisting families entering parenthood. She lives in Vermont with her husband, two daughters, and husky.