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Maher became interim executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation In March 2016 following the resignation of then executive director Lila Tretikov and was appointed executive director in June 2016. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales announced the appointment June 24, 2016 at Wikimania 2016 in Esino Lario, Italy, effective June 23, 2016.

Maher was chief communications officer of the Wikimedia Foundation from April 2014 to March 2016. She was interviewed by The Washington Post on United States copyright law.

From 2013 to 2014, Maher was advocacy director at the Washington, D.C.-based Access Now. As part of this work, she focused on the impact on people of laws about cyber security, morality, and defamation of the state that increase state censorship and reduce dissent. Access was a signatory of the Declaration of Internet Freedom.

From 2010 to 2011, Maher worked at the National Democratic Institute as an ICT Program Officer, working in the field of information and communications technology (ICT). From 2011 to 2013, Maher worked at the World Bank as an ICT innovation specialist and consulted on technology for international development and democratization, working on ICT for accountability and governance with a focus on the role of mobile phones and other technologies in facilitating civil society and institutional reform, particularly in the Middle East and Africa. She co-authored a chapter on "Making Government Mobile" of a World Bank publication titled Information and Communications for Development 2012: Maximizing Mobile. In 2012 Maher's Twitter feed on issues related to the Middle East was noted for its coverage of the Arab Spring.

In 2007, Maher moved back to New York City where from 2007 to 2010 she worked at UNICEF as an innovation and communication officer. She worked to promote the use of technology to improve people's lives and traveled extensively to work on issues related to maternal health, HIV/AIDS prevention, and youth participation in technology. One of her first projects at UNICEF involved testing MediaWiki extensions related to accessibility in Ethiopia. Another project received USAid Development 2.0 Challenge grant funding to work on the use of mobile phones to monitor nutrition in children in Malawi.

In 2005, Maher received a bachelor's degree from New York University in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies.

After internships at the Council on Foreign Relations and Eurasia Group, in 2005 Maher began working at HSBC in London, Germany, and Canada as part of their international manager development program.

Maher grew up in Wilton, Connecticut and attended Wilton High School. After high school, Maher graduated from the Arabic Language Institute's Arabic Language Intensive Program of The American University in Cairo in 2003, which she said was a formative experience that instilled a deep love of the Middle East. Maher subsequently studied at the Institut français d’études arabes de Damas in Syria and spent time in Lebanon and Tunisia.

Katherine Roberts Maher (/m ɑːr / ; born April 18, 1983) is the chief executive officer and executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, a position she has held since June 2016. Previously she was chief communications officer. She has a background in the field of information and communications technology and worked in the non-profit and international sectors, focusing on the use of technology to empower human rights and international development.