We are pleased to announce our newest Board member, Kathryn Catania. Kathryn is a champion of providing information that is easy to find, understand, and use. She has more than 15 years’ experience promoting plain language in government writing. Kathryn is currently the deputy director of Safety Recommendations and Communications with the National Transportation Safety Board. From 2006 to 2019, Kathryn held various roles at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services including deputy chief of the Office of Communications. Kathryn established the USCIS Plain Language Program, and she created and led the Plain Language and Content Division, a team of writer-editors ensuring that public-facing content in English and Spanish was easy to understand and in compliance with the Plain Writing Act of 2010.
From 2011 to 2019, Kathryn co-chaired the Plain Language Action and Information Network (PLAIN), an interagency government working group that maintains the Federal Plain Language Guidelines and plainlanguage.gov. She was a guest speaker at several Plain Language Association International conferences (2017 Graz, Austria; 2015 Dublin, Ireland; 2011 Stockholm, Sweden) and the 2012 Clarity conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Kathryn has been a judge for several Center for Plain Language ClearMark Awards and New Zealand WriteMark Awards.