Katrina Kelly-Pitou

“My personal mission is to connect the dots between policy goals and implementable action for our sustainability aspirations,” says Katrina. “I want to help our society more boldly challenge existing notions of what we think of as ‘infrastructures or ‘development’ and use our capacity as creative beings to design the supportive structures that we really want and need for the future.” One of the reasons she wanted to join SmithGroup was “to be able to work with an experienced group of practitioners across a variety of disciplines coming together to aggregate that vision.”  After spending her early career in Europe working with non-governmental institutions and reinsurers on climate adaptation policy, Katrina learned the value in combining technical and natural infrastructure designs to deliver immediate resilience, yet also contribute to long-term mitigation.  With a background in both economics and engineering systems, Katrina is passionate about creating a deeper connection between the beautiful and the functional, and prides herself on being a translator between the various disciplines in SmithGroup. Her joy in creating intentional collaboration between engineering and liberal arts also carries into her personal life. When not practicing, Katrina is also an acting professor in the Energy, Science, Technology and Policy master’s program at Carnegie Mellon University. When not nerding about nature, she enjoys thriving in it- spending as much time outdoors as possible with her family.