Welcome to the third installment of meeting the staff at Blood:Water. First you met Aaron Sands, our bass playing, hiking machine. Then you met Jake Smith, our country-crooning jokester. Time to meet Katherine, our tenderhearted cheerleader.
With a passion for justice issues, Katherine set out to make a difference early. In college, she and a sorority sister started the Nicaraguan Orphan Fund at the University of Virginia.
From there, she went on to pursue a career with the International Justice Mission in Washington, DC. Then, when Blood:Water Co-Founder Jena Lee Nardella came by the office for a meeting with her mentor, Gary Haugen, Katherine pulled a sneak attack. She slipped Jena a copy of her resume in an IJM folder.
IJM has kept a close watch on their staff around Jena for the last five years, while Katherine has been settling into a life full of love in Nashville.
Literally.
Katherine loves southern culture and cuisine. She loves planning and executing events for Blood:Water, where she gets to meet many lovely donors. And she even met the love of her life, David Cleve Hofstetter, Jr.
They got married in August and live with their perfect, precious pooch, Trigger, in Hillsboro Village. And on the weekends, that’s where you’ll find them—walking the dog, working out, dining, enjoying a glass of wine, or studying.
Katherine and David will both graduate with master’s degrees in counseling in May. Katherine will put that knowledge to use right away practicing outreach counseling at the West Nashville Dream Center, seeing clients on the weekends, and informing her interactions with the exterminators, landscapers, and cable guys she works with in her role as proud HOA president.
By the time she heads back to Africa this summer, the 16-hour flight will likely be a welcome break. That’s opposed to the first trip over…when she boarded, expecting that to be broken up into two legs. Claustrophobia may or may not have ensued…
Luckily, with her peppy attitude, she powered right through. As they say, once a cheerleader, always a cheerleader.
