Kaitlin Steen

Kaitlin (Katie) Steen is a Higher Education Fellow for U.S. Public Interest Research Groups (PIRG). She works in Washington, D.C. advocating for accessible and affordable higher education on behalf of students, and is an advocate for the incorporation of open educational resources as a means to help mitigate escalating college costs. As a student at the University of Missouri, Katie led the University of Missouri System student lobbying organization as the executive director, where she coordinated and oversaw lobbying efforts in the Missouri state capitol on behalf of 77,000 students. Throughout her time as a student lobbyist, Katie worked on state appropriations, STEM education, landlord-tenant relations and financial aid issues. Katie has also served as the Director of National Affairs for the Graduate Professional Council at the University of Missouri, where she advocated on behalf of graduate and professional students on campus and at the federal level working on graduate/professional student loans, open access to federally funded research, and domestic revalidation of F-type student visas. She represented graduate and professional students on Capitol Hill as the Assistant Director of Legislative Affairs for the National Association of Graduate-Professional Students (NAGPS).