“Outstanding. Kate was an excellent guide, knowledgeable, friendly, and passionate about Chicago.”
Kate moved to Chicago 35 years ago from New York City for graduate school and never left. She decided early on that Chicago was a "kinder, gentler" New York, and she has proudly called it home ever since.
As a lifelong educator, she's spent her career as a storyteller in different disguises: teacher at Chicago's first all-girls charter school, professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at several Chicagoland universities, professional speaker for many organizations, and now tour guide. Growing up with an art historian for a parent, she learned that buildings and the sculptures around them are never just structures. They're narratives, echoing the people who built them, worked in them, and left their mark on this city.
Kate leads our World Within (I): Dazzling Interiors of the Loop Tour and is part of the inspiration behind our company owner Hillary’s creation of our newest route, A Woman’s Place: The Chicago Women’s History Tour. She is particularly excited and proud to be the first guide on the Women’s History tour, bringing to light the women whose fingerprints are all over this city's history and whose stories rarely make it into the guidebooks.
When she's not out on tour, Kate writes for "Being Bold, Brave & Badass," her Substack newsletter helping women step into their most badass selves. She was a third-degree black belt and certified women's empowerment self-defense instructor, so tread lightly if you're thinking about cutting the group off mid-story.