Dr. Kate Jellema

Kate Jellema is the Development Strategist and Program Liaison at International Refugee Assistance Project. Prior to this role, Kate served as IRAP’s Director of Institutional Philanthropy. 

Prior to joining IRAP, Kate was the Dean of Graduate and Professional Studies at Marlboro College in Marlboro, Vermont, where she led academic programs in sustainable business, nonprofit management, teaching English as a second language and teaching for social justice, and stewarded the College’s “Changemaker Campus” partnership with the Ashoka Foundation. Kate was also the founder and director of the Center for New Leadership, Vermont’s hub for social sector education and training, and the co-creator of Benchmarks for a Better Vermont, a  statewide federally-funded initiative to strengthen social sector accountability. In these roles, Kate cultivated foundation support, led strategic fundraising initiatives, and managed a portfolio of private and federal donors. 

Kate received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and her MA from Johns Hopkins, where her research, supported by the MacArthur Foundation, the Social Science Research Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation and the National Science Foundation, examined the experience of Vietnamese asylum seekers in Hong Kong. Kate received her undergraduate degree with highest honors from the University of Michigan, where her thesis focused on the history of Mexican migrant farmworkers in Michigan.