Katie
Freund
Head of Strategic at PYSDEH, increasing leadership opportunities for Indigenous women in rural Mexico, equipping them with resources and networks to lead and shape their own futures.
THE BACKGROUND
Catherine “Katie” Freund, 29 from the U.S., is the Head of Strategic Partnerships & Learning at PSYDEH, a Mexican grassroots NGO focusing on empowering rural and Indigenous women as community leaders to address local social, economic, and gender-based inequality.
In Mexico, such inequality is particularly prominent in rural areas, where women are often confined to domestic roles with little access to education or leadership roles. Systemic barriers and limited resources keep many trapped in poverty and exclusion. Katie, with PSYDEH, is working to change this by equipping women with the tools, networks, and opportunities to drive sustainable development in their communities.
KATIE'S LEADERSHIP AND IMPACT
Katie has been with PSYDEH from its early stages, playing an instrumental role in shaping the organisation’s vision, approach, and expansion. She was key in developing PSYDEH’s love based approach, which emphasizes values such as trust, solidarity, and relationship-building as the foundation for sustainable system change.
Under her leadership, PSYDEH has significantly grown its impact, securing record-high funding in 2024 and dramatically increasing in-kind contributions. Katie has been a driving force in diversifying resources, forging major partnerships, and securing grants for climate justice, democracy-building, and digital inclusion.
Her strategic approach has also strengthened Indigenous women-led cooperatives and launched initiatives like a regional development agenda and a gender justice program. Through this work, she has helped build a model that not only empowers women in the area as equal partners, but also fosters long-term, sustainability and community-driven solutions that challenge inequality at its roots.
LOOKING AHEAD
Katie, who has recently started her master’s degree at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), plans to integrate her new insights into her ongoing work at PSYDEH.
PSYDEH continues to empower rural and Indigenous women through the Sierra Madre Network, a cooperative program that fosters social, economic, and gender equality. Recently, the organization launched an online sales platform to support women artisans directly, ensuring 100% of profits go to the makers and promoting economic independence.
"For me, trailblazing leadership means bringing people together to build collective futures that are aligned with our values. At PSYDEH we don't mean this abstractly, but rather in the sense of doing the messy, non-linear (and often slow) work of practicing solidarity to confront local and global inequality.
The Win-Win Youth Awards recognize the centrality of relational work and creating partnerships across difference—being selected as a finalist for this award is a true honor and an inspiration to keep innovating, learning and dreaming with the PSYDEH team."
- Katie Freund