About
Kitty Wooley, M.A., PMP, worked 19 years at the U.S. Department of Education after a decade in college administration. Positions in San Francisco and Washington, DC involved work as an Institutional Review Specialist, Risk Specialist, and Management and Program Analyst. Major accomplishments include:
In 1996 and 1997, she managed a risk management system project intended to reduce the risk of loss of government funds, helped roll it out to 10 Federal Student Aid offices, and briefed Regional Inspector General auditors. The system gave the agency an integrated view of funds and a big picture on cash drawdowns vs. supporting student records for the first time.
From January to April, 2002, she did handholding on a national scale after a service delivery failure via biweekly conference calls to convince early-adopter university financial aid directors, university IT staffs, and financial aid contractors serving small college clients not to drop out of the initial rollout of a groundbreaking system designed to integrate Pell Grant and Direct Loan administration and improve electronic funds reconciliation and ease of use.
In 2012, with OMB colleagues and retired budget experts, she led three interagency flash mentoring sessions that connected executive branch budget leaders with newer budget staff in 6 cabinet agencies in order to transfer tacit knowledge and foster a collegial network.
Kitty wrote articles for The Public Manager and served on the planning committee for several Excellence in Government Conferences. She also wrote “Four New Models of Networked Leadership Development” in Innovations in Human Resource Management: Getting the Public’s Work Done in the 21st Century, published in 2009 by M.E. Sharpe (Vol. 8 in the National Academy of Public Administration book series, Transformational Trends in Governance and Democracy).
Through the Senior Fellows and Friends network, Kitty has convened and connected practitioners and academics since 2003. She also serves as a district representative on the ASPA (American Society for Public Administration) National Council and creates virtual and hybrid events intended to spark fresh conversation among members who live in the ten states of District 4.
Kitty’s new book, available in ebook and paperback versions, From Networking to Boundary Spanning: How You Can Get Results Inside Large Organizations, was released in April, 2026. Unemployed FormerGov members are invited to contact her for complimentary online access.