Katherine Williams joined the CHESS team in September 2023. In this role, she supports professorial appointment committees in the assessment of candidates’ leadership skills. She also plays an active role in further developing the Leadership and Governance Academy, devising and organizing attractive and target group-oriented continuing education programs for professors.

Katherine Williams studied modern languages at the University of St Andrews, UK, where she also later completed a PhD alongside her employment as an instructor of English at the Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany.  She joined the English Department at the University of Zurich in 2004 as an instructor of English, before moving into the position as Executive Assistant in 2007, and General Manager from 2014. Katherine Williams gained extensive experience in leadership and management skills in her role as General Manager, in which she was responsible for the department administration, IT, and library teams. She brings this expertise in the increasingly complex challenges of academic leadership to her role at CHESS. In 2015, Katherine Williams also completed a CAS in Public Management at the ZHAW.