Kate McCord (she/they) has been a loyal fan of Virginia Organizing since first joining a Dismantling Racism workshop facilitated by the brilliant Cathy Woodson in the early 2000s. Kate was a member of the first installment of the Williamsburg Chapter from 2003-2008, where she worked on an inclusive housing campaign to expand affordable workforce housing for the community. From 2004-2007, Kate was also a member of Virginia Organizing’s Statewide Campaign to Address Racial Profiling, and has been a member of the current Williamsburg Area Chapter since its inception in January 2025. The chapter has been focusing on protecting our immigrant friends, family, and neighbors during this perilous time. Kate joined the Virginia Organizing Statewide Governing Board in January 2026.
Kate has been active in the movement to end sexual and intimate partner violence since finding the work as a college student in the 1990s. Over the past 30+ years, she has worked in community education at a community-based sexual and domestic violence agency, helped establish and lead a statewide training institute on sexual and domestic violence, coordinated the launch of Virginia’s Statewide Sexual Assault Hotline, led the communications for a statewide coalition, and developed numerous statewide and national public awareness initiatives and social norms campaigns, including the internationally awarded Red Flag Campaign, a bystander intervention strategy for college campuses.
Two recent projects of which Kate is most proud are:
- The ReStoryation Project, a national needs assessment undertaken by 24 U.S. states and territories that used storytelling to help frontline victim advocates process their experiences during Covid and name what is needed to maintain a sustainable anti-violence movement into the future, and;
- Authoring the “Harm and Accountability Conversation Seed Packet”, a discussion guide to support conversations about harm, accountability, and healing among Virginia’s sexual and domestic violence programs and adopted by Lawrenceville Correctional Center’s men’s group on accountability.
Kate is currently the Associate Director of the Virginia Sexual & Domestic Violence Action Alliance, Virginia’s leading voice on sexual and domestic violence. Kate is a queer mama who adores her family, reveling in bodies of water, the smell of orange blossoms, and the hum of cicadas in the summer. She is especially drawn to art as narrative and political practice, discovering new ways to foster compassion, and dreaming up futures in which we all thrive.
Kate is awed by the work of Virginia Organizing and the power of truly centering the voices of people most directly impacted. She is deeply proud and humbled to be in company with the luminous spirits and brilliant minds who make up its network.
She lives in Williamsburg with her spouse, her young adult son, and a spunky toy poodle named Charlie Brown. Kate holds a B.A. from Oberlin College and a M.Ed. in Counseling from the College of William & Mary.
