Program Director, Heartland Forward
Katherine (Katie) Milligan combines public policy expertise, community-based program building and a fierce passion for the heartland to drive her work accelerating economic growth in the middle of the country.
Katie currently serves as the Program Director for Workforce and Entrepreneurship for Heartland Forward. At Heartland Forward she’s led award-winning programming and helped to raise over $10 million in support of over 1,000 heartland entrepreneurs. She previously served as the Chief of Staff for Start Co., a venture development organization based in Memphis, TN and as the Director of Small Business and Entrepreneurship for the Delta Regional Authority (DRA), a federal agency that works to improve regional economic opportunity in the eight state Delta region. While at the DRA, Katie launched the Delta Entrepreneurship Network, a competitive fellowship program to identify entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship support organizations in the Delta.
Katie was a participant in the inaugural cohort of the Obama Foundation United States Leaders and served as a U.S. delegate at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress.
Born and raised in the heartland, Katie has a B.A. in political science from the University of Mississippi and an M.P.S. from the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service. Katie lives in Bentonville, Arkansas where she is actively involved in her community.