As Senior Vice President based in Washington DC, Katie Connolly uses her expertise as a writer and former journalist to help clients develop messaging that moves minds and sparks actions. At BSG, Katie served as a senior member of the Ogilvy Award-winning polling team for President Obama’s re-election campaign, and then managed the firm’s work for the Obama White House. During the 2016 cycle, she led BSG’s work for Secretary Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

​Katie helped pioneer the firm’s expertise in ethnographic and diary-based research. She has advised institutional, political, and corporate clients, including HBO, The New Republic, NBC News/Esquire, America Achieves, Christine Quinn, Senator Robert Menendez, Les Schwab, the Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, and the New York State Health Foundation.

​Katie came to Benenson Strategy Group from the BBC, where she was a Washington correspondent. In the 2008 cycle, Katie was a campaign reporter for Newsweek magazine and was embedded in the McCain campaign. Her reporting was part of an exclusive, behind-the-scenes special issue of Newsweek released two days after the election (and later as a book). It won a New York Press Club award and was nominated for a National Magazine Award. She has also worked as a strategic communications advisor at FleishmanHillard, a management consultant for L.E.K. Consulting and as a researcher in the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

​Born and bred in Brisbane, Australia, but living the U.S. since 2004, her accent is really rather odd these days. Katie holds a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where she received the prestigious Menzies scholarship, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Queensland. She lives in Washington DC with her husband, two young sons and a dog who used to get a lot more attention before the kids came on the scene. She genuinely likes vegan food.