Kathi has spent decades giving back. Education, health and cancer research, hunger relief and housing, and mentorship of the next generation. Some of the work is rooted in Pasadena; much of it extends across Los Angeles and beyond. The same intensity she brings to a transaction, she brings to the causes she cares about.
Kathi founded a children's educational foundation that distributed more than ten thousand textbooks to underprivileged kids. She taught children in South Central Los Angeles while she was still a USC student. She mentors USC real estate students today. And, increasingly, she mentors women in commercial real estate — through the Pathfinder work, and through the calls she takes from women considering their own pivot. Education has always been the thing she returned to.
Not a one-time gesture and not a list of memberships — sustained, hands-on work over decades, often quietly. A representative (not exhaustive) accounting of where Kathi has invested her time and resources.
Kathi founded and ran a children's educational foundation that distributed more than 10,000 textbooks to underprivileged children. While at USC, she mentored and taught children in South Central Los Angeles through the Joint Educational Program. Today she continues that work through the USC Real Estate Network Alumni Mentorship Program.
Cancer research is a recurring commitment. Kathi has been an annual participant in Cycle for Survival, the fundraising ride that supports Memorial Sloan Kettering's rare-cancer research program, and she has supported the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society through Team Sonia and Team In Training. She's also a longtime blood donor with the American Red Cross and City of Hope.
Kathi volunteers at the Midnight Mission, the Skid Row shelter and addiction treatment center that has served Los Angeles since 1914. She also volunteers with One Voice's annual food drive — packaging and distributing food and necessities to families struggling against poverty — and with A Sense of Home, which helps young people transitioning out of the foster system furnish their first apartments.
Kathi believes the commercial real estate industry will be better when more women lead in it. She speaks regularly to professional women's groups (including the Women's Council of Realtors San Fernando Valley) and mentors emerging real estate professionals through formal programs and informal one-on-one relationships. Her own rise — recognized by Bill Ukropina and CBC's Protégé of the Year award — has made her a natural mentor.
"Pasadena gave me everything — my education, my career, my family, the friendships that have lasted decades. The least I can do is show up for the people in this community who haven't had what I've had."
Named Distinguished Humanitarian in recognition of decades of community work alongside her career in commercial real estate.
If you're leading a Pasadena nonprofit, educational program, or community initiative — Kathi wants to hear from you. She's always looking for the next organization to support and the next person to help.