Katherine Spillar

Katherine Spillar is the American executive editor of Ms. and co-founder and executive director of the Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF) and the Feminist Majority.

Early life

Katherine Spillar grew up in Texas. Her mother, Edna Hughes, was a nurse who used her GI benefits to attend college and then medical school. She met Spillar's father, Bliss Spillar, while they were studying for medical school together and the two moved to San Antonio.

Education

Spillar graduated magna cum laude from Texas Christian University (TCU) in three years with a degree in urban studies.

Political activism

When asked when she had become a feminist, Spillar told an interviewer, "I think I was born a feminist," although she later added that she probably discovered the term "feminism" during her undergraduate years at TCU. And in the wake of the beating of motorist Rodney King, she worked to establish the National Center for Women and Policing.

Spillar became executive editor of Ms. Magazine in 2005 and oversaw the creation of the Ms. Magazine blog, the expansion of international reporting, and the Ms. in the Classroom program, a digital platform that provides access to the magazine for college campuses around the world.