Kate Bramson joined the WaterFire Board in March of 2023. She brings to the Board her knowledge of economic development and her deep understanding of the role that WaterFire plays in Providence and for Rhode Island.
Kate is the Founder and Principal of an independent consulting practice. She edits expansive federal grant applications within the education and nonprofit sectors; has co-authored a policy report for Jobs for the Future about remote work opportunities for low-income, older workers; and writes grant applications for a variety of nonprofits. This practice, launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, emphasizes grant writing and editing, policy research, analysis, and writing — about education, housing, economic development, health care, job training, equity and justice, entrepreneurship and innovation, transportation, and more.
She worked as a reporter for 16 years at The Providence Journal, where she focused in her final 7 years on reporting about economic development and workforce issues. She wrote about the 195 Commission’s efforts to develop the vacant land in the heart of the capital city freed up after the relocation of the highway, the collapse of former Red Sox pitching star Curt Schilling’s 38 Studios, then-Governor Gina Raimondo’s economic development priorities, and the complex financing required for the nonprofit WaterFire to transform the long-vacant former U.S. Rubber factory into the WaterFire Arts Center.
Kate left journalism to become the Policy Director for the Rhode Island State Senate, where she led the creation of the Senate’s economic-development legislative package, “Building a More Vibrant Rhode Island.” She has since worked in the nonprofit housing sector and as associate director in the Office of Deputy Dean Megan L. Ranney, while Ranney was at Brown University’s School of Public Health.
Bramson lives in Providence with her husband, Andrew Bramson, and their two teenagers. Together, they’ve traveled extensively — quite often selecting destinations that are off the beaten path, including Uzbekistan, Myanmar, Oman, the Roman ruins in Algeria, and Ukraine six years ago, where they spent three days in Chornobyl.
