Katherine Gillespie is the Acting Legal & Advocacy Director at Maryland Legal Aid. Before joining Maryland Legal Aid, she served as Acting Director, Federal Policy and Advocacy at the Center for Reproductive Rights, where she developed strategies to protect reproductive rights and access to healthcare, focusing on administrative advocacy and oversight. Katherine also spent over seven years at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in various senior roles, including leading projects aimed at empowering underserved communities like older Americans, servicemembers, and students, and managing oversight requests from Congress, the Office of Inspector General, and the Government Accountability Office. She previously served as Senior Counsel to the Deputy Director of the Bureau, advising on policy and oversight issues. Earlier in her career, Katherine was a civil rights attorney at Relman, Dane & Colfax LLP, litigating fair housing and civil rights cases, and practiced law at WilmerHale, where she had a significant pro bono practice representing reproductive rights organizations and individuals facing discrimination. She also worked as a fellow at the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs and clerked for the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In addition to her legal career, Katherine has taught courses on the U.S. Supreme Court and Constitution at American University. She holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and a B.A. with Honors in History and Spanish from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.