Kate Stirr

Role: Emcee

Kate Stirr is the Vice President of External Affairs at Natel. She is responsible for introducing Natel’s FishSafe turbine technology to the world through marketing, communications, and stakeholder engagement, as well as for leading policy and government affairs for the company. She is an active participant in the Uncommon Dialogue and is co-chair of NHA’s new Technology Innovation Roundtable. Prior to Natel Kate spent seven years at Alphabet, where she prototyped hardware for early-stage Google X projects including self-driving cars, delivery drones, wearable devices, and internet balloons, and later managed flight testing logistics, outreach, and communications for Makani, an airborne wind turbine project. While at Makani, Kate wrote and directed a feature-length film, Pulling Power from the Sky, that tells the story of the team’s incredible engineering effort. Kate holds undergraduate degrees in art and Spanish from Lewis & Clark College, and a Post Baccalaureate Certificate in sculpture from San Francisco Art Institute. She earned her Master of Fine Arts from Mills College.