Catherine werner
Director of Sustainability & Innovation, National League of Cities
Catherine is an experienced environmental attorney, educator and sustainability practitioner. She has held several sustainable development and natural resource conservation roles, working for both federal and local government, and also private firms and nonprofit organizations across the country. Catherine has extensive experience in not only policy and planning, but also project management and communication. She has overseen the implementation of numerous sustainability strategies, including climate protection, biodiversity, green infrastructure, biophilia and nature-rich cities.
Most recently, Catherine performed municipal advisory consulting for AECOM, where she supported cities, counties, and regional transit agencies in accelerating sustainability objectives. Prior to that, Catherine served as the Sustainability Director for the City of St. Louis from 2009-2022, where she was a champion of triple bottom line sustainability principles – balancing environmental issues alongside socio-economic considerations, including health and equity. Catherine led the city’s climate action and climate justice efforts, the $2.5 Million American Cities Climate Challenge award to pilot solar workforce development, support vehicle electrification, and advance building energy performance and solar readiness. Additionally, Catherine formed a collaboration to support urban vitality & ecology efforts, pioneered the highly successful Milkweeds for Monarchs: The St. Louis Butterfly Project, developed urban biodiversity indicators, promoted community-based citizen science and eco-literacy, and equitable connections to nature.
Prior to her work in St. Louis, Catherine served as lead Environmental Counsel for the federal Resolution Trust Corporation agency in the Washington, D.C. headquarters office. She coordinated water issues for the City of Chicago Department of Environment. At The Nature Conservancy of Missouri and Chicago Wilderness biodiversity collaboration, Catherine obtained valuable experience on natural resource issues. She also founded a nonprofit, Prairies Forever, to raise awareness about tallgrass prairies. Catherine has been the Environmental Specialist for a large-scale master planned community in northern Nevada, and the Sustainability Consultant to the provost at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Catherine has taught environmental courses at various institutions of higher learning, including Environmental Law: Applications Toward Sustainability and Urban Ecology: Principles & Practice at Washington University in St. Louis. Catherine obtained her J.D. from Washington University School of Law, and her undergraduate degree from Duke University, with an A.B. in the field of political science.