Dr. Kate Chhatwal OBE

Dr Kate Chhatwal OBE is CEO of Challenge Partners, an England-wide, practitioner-led school improvement charity. Kate is passionate about education and social justice. Her belief in the ability of children and adults to develop themselves and others, and to transform the world around them, is at the heart of all she does.

Kate is Non Executive Director of tech start-up SchoolOnline; Independent Chair of the Liverpool Priority Education Investment Area Board; Chair of ImpactEd’s Education Advisory Board; and independent member of Parkrun Global’s governance and risk committee. She recently stepped down after serving 8 years as trustee and Chair of Education Committee at STEP Academy Trust.

Kate’s previous roles include Executive Director of Southwark Teaching School Alliance and Chief Programme Officer at The Future Leaders Trust. Kate spent 11 years in the UK Department for Education, where she led the Labour government's flagship National Challenge Programme and worked with Mike Tomlinson on developing far-reaching proposals for 14-19 curriculum and qualifications reform. In 2015, Kate co-founded the Leading Women's Alliance to tackle the under-representation of women in senior education roles.

Kate holds a PhD in education policy from the European University Institute in Florence, and was awarded an OBE for services to education in the 2020 New Year’s Honours.