Catherine Read

Co-Founder, Points True North

Catherine is an experienced organizational leader, advocate, campaigner and coalition builder who has worked at the local, federal and international level. She is co-founder of Points True North which works on a range of critical health, racial and social justice issues building impactful coalitions, advancing policy change and devising strategic campaigns. Catherine worked most recently at Upstream USA, an organization focused on reproductive health equity, where she led external relations and community engagement on the state then national level.  In 2017, she launched and led an award-winning citizen-driven truth commission (The North Carolina Commission of Inquiry on Torture) – the first state-based accountability effort of its kind.  She started her career in Washington D.C. leading the offices of two international human rights organizations, Crisis Action and the Center for Victims of Torture. In 2011, Washingtonian Magazine named her one of the 40-star lobbyists under 40 for her work on the Campaign to Ban Torture. In 2021, Catherine was appointed to the NC Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. She was part of Leadership North Carolina’s Class XXVIII. She sits on Dominion Energy’s NC Advisory Council on Environmental Justice. She volunteers with NC Stop Torture Now and Triangle for Choice.