Kate Bramson is the associate director in the Office of Deputy Dean Megan L. Ranney at Brown University’s School of Public Health, where she has worked since June 2022 to advance the school’s academic priorities. She has lived and worked in Rhode Island for two decades and has transitioned into public policy after an award-winning journalism career that included stints in France, Hungary, and Duluth, Minnesota.
Bramson was elected to the WaterFire Board of Directors in February. She is eager to bring to the Board her knowledge of economic development and her understanding of the role that WaterFire plays in Providence and for Rhode Island. Bramson covered economic development and workforce issues for 7 of her 16 years as a reporter for The Providence Journal, where she also wrote about education, government, socioeconomic issues, a teen rape case in Burrillville, the state’s lax drunken-driving laws, and breaking news. On the economic beat, 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.
After leaving journalism, Bramson worked for three years as 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,” and in the nonprofit housing sector before joining Deputy Dean Ranney’s team at Brown.
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 five years ago, where they spent three days in Chornobyl.
