Kate Konopka ’92

Overview

Legal Director, Global Health Advocacy Incubator
Washington, DC

• BA, Women’s Studies, Vassar College
• JD, Law, Northeastern University School of Law

Kate Konopka (she/her) has managed complex civil and criminal litigation for more than two decades for federal and state governments, a global public health NGO, and on behalf of private plaintiff classes. As the Legal Director for the Global Health Advocacy Incubator, she leads a team of international lawyers in using the power of law to advance, enforce, and defend public health policies in more than 30 countries worldwide. Prior to this position, Kate served as Deputy Attorney General for the District of Columbia over the office’s civil affirmative docket in furtherance of the public interest, including civil rights, consumer protection, workers’ rights, antitrust, and environmental litigation. She also previously served in senior litigation positions for the New York Attorney General and the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Consumer Protection and Antitrust Division. Kate has overseen significant cases against Google, Meta, and Amazon for consumer and antitrust violations and obtained full vacatur of an illegal rule that would have eliminated essential food assistance for 700,000 Americans under the first Trump administration.

Advice to Students: 

Take chances and maintain networks! Swallow your reluctance to ask for mentorship and help. It doesn’t matter if teachers or early employers remember you in the first instance. It matters that you reach out, self-advocate, and believe that most of us are more than willing to talk to you, review a resume, and put in a good word for you. I obtained my first job as a paralegal in the Sex Offense Section at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in DC right after graduating from Vassar in part because a Vassar grad that I did not know, but reached out to, put my resume in front of the hiring official.