Katie Marie (“K.M.”) Zouhary, founder and principal for KMZ Advisors, believes in the power of improvisation. In navigating a career. In making a speech. In leading a team.

K.M.’s own trajectory has spanned industries and geographies in diverse organizations with a focus on excellent client service and creativity. Her experiences as corporate VP, attorney at law, entrepreneur, adjunct professor, chief of staff, and comedic improviser, help K.M. deliver powerful perspectives and expertise to her clients.

As the Estée Lauder Companies’ (ELC) global Vice President of Leadership Initiatives, K.M. partnered with the Vice Chair to create, develop, and execute a bespoke curriculum to advance talent. K.M. created groundbreaking global content for thousands of employees from point of sale to the executive team. She led a team that created live, hybrid, and virtual programs to elevate talent on every continent (save Antarctica) and served philanthropic partners including Kode with Klossy and Vital Voices Visionaries.

K.M. is an award-winning lecturer and sought after coach. She has taught Public Persuasion and Negotiation at Northwestern University—at the School of Law, Masters of Science in Law (MSL) Program and the School for Professional Studies. In 2020, she received the Outstanding Teaching Award for the MSL Program—by student vote—and in 2021, Northwestern Law honored her with the Emerging Leader Award.

K.M. is a Gallup Strengths Coach with significant experience coaching individuals, teams, and cohorts from around the world engaging clients from consumer goods to the law to academia to the military.

K.M. worked as an employment lawyer for Proskauer Rose and Schiff Hardin. She received the Proskauer Golden Gavel award and appeared on 60 Minutes in connection with her work on the Dixmoor Five and Englewood Four exonerations. In addition to her legal experience, K.M. proudly served as Chief of Staff of the National Endowment for the Arts. She worked as the Associate Producer of HAIRSPRAY (Broadway) and performed onstage at St. Ann’s Warehouse (NYC) and Ars Nova (NYC). K.M. began her career as an analyst for Accenture’s Marketing Team. K.M. received her JD (magna cum laude and Order of the Coif) from Northwestern and her BA (cum laude) from Yale. She also graduated from The Second City Chicago’s Conservatory Program.

K.M. serves on the advisory board of NYU Law’s Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center. Previously, she served on the boards of the Michigan Prison Doula Initiative and the Center on Wrongful Convictions Justice Council.