Kate Atema, MS; PetSmart Charities
Director of community grants and initiatives, petsmart charities
Kate Nattrass Atema leads the community grants team at PetSmart Charities, focused on ensuring accessible veterinary care, accessible pet food and other critical resources are available to families with pets in underserved and marginalized communities in the United States and Canada.
Prior to joining PetSmart Charities in 2020, she served as director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare’s (ifaw) global companion animals and community engagement program, which encompassed work with communities around the world in humane companion animal management, community conservation and disaster response.
Ms. Atema also served as Chairperson of the International Companion Animal Management Coalition (ICAM) from 2010-2019, where she is currently a Trustee. During her tenure as Chair of ICAM, the group led the professionalization of the global dog and cat management field through increased emphasis on data-based decision-making.
She received her M.S. in Animals and Public Policy from Tufts University, where she later taught courses in research design and qualitative research methods and served as a senior faculty fellow. She is also a contributing lecturer at University of Edinburgh’s International Animal Welfare Ethics and Law program. Kate has lived and worked all over the world, but is currently based in Phoenix, Arizona with her partner, two teenage boys and an opinionated husky/lab/whatever mix, Ivy.
