Katie Bowler Young

Katie Bowler Young is senior director of university collaborations, overseeing programs and initiatives that support RTI’s role as a regional convener and which leverage university collaboration for growth in RTI’s impact, innovation, scientific stature and financial strength. Ms. Bowler Young joined RTI International in 2021 as operations director for the team, helping to shape the FY23-25 Strategic Framework for University Collaborations at RTI. She has also led the office’s digital transformation and developed systems and structures to advance bilateral and multilateral collaboration and signature programs such as the RTI University Scholars Program. Ms. Bowler Young has been a leader in higher education for more than 21 years, working across public and private U.S. institutions to advance research and academic collaboration globally.

Ms. Bowler Young was awarded a 2021 North Carolina Governor’s Award for Excellence for Outstanding Government Service for her work to secure global education at UNC-Chapel Hill during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and a 2023 Fulbright-Nehru International Educator Administrator award. She is the author of the biography Enrique Alférez: Sculptor and two books of poetry. Ms. Bowler Young is a visiting scholar at the UNC Institute for the Study of the Americas at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.