Katharine Armstrong is President of Katharine Armstrong, Inc., an Austin based consulting firm specializing in corporate affairs, government relations and not-for-profit clients at both the state and national levels. She is a fifth-generation Texan raised on her family’s South Texas cattle ranch. She is an artist, an avid outdoorswoman and the mother of three children. She was appointed to the Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPWD) Commission in 1999 by Gov. George W. Bush and named Chairman in 2001 by Gov. Rick Perry, becoming the first woman to head the agency.
Katharine Armstrong worked steadily to build and improve TPWD’s relationships with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Texas Water Development Board, resulting in long-term benefits for the formulation of water policy in Texas. During her tenure as Chairman, she oversaw the development of the Land and Water Resources Conservation and Recreation Plan, a strategic plan that will guide TPWD’s conservation efforts over the next decade.
Previously, Katharine worked for Senator John Tower and in the Nixon White House before joining Smith Barney, Harris, Upham & Company in 1976. Starting her career at Smith Barney as an account executive in Dallas, Katharine became a Vice-President in the Municipal Finance Department in New York.
Katharine Armstrong has served on many boards and advisory committees, including the selection committee for the White House Fellows Program, Vice-Chairman of the Dallas Zoological Society, the Central Park Conservancy, Camp John Mark Meyer, and the Park Cities Republican Women’s Club. She currently serves on the advisory boards of the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M Corpus Christi and the James Madison Book Award. She is Chairman of the South Texas Native Plant Restoration Project at Texas A& M Kingsville, and is a director of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association and the Texas Wildlife Association.
Austin, Texas
