Ascend Indiana’s Kate Broshears Named to IBJ’s Forty Under 40 List

Ascend Indiana is pleased to announce that Kate Broshears, Ascend’s Vice President of Operations and Chief of Staff, has been named to the Indianapolis Business Journal’s (IBJ) prestigious Forty Under 40 list.

Kate has served in key operational roles at Ascend since 2016. She was named Vice President of Operations in 2020 and added the Chief of Staff role in 2021. In this capacity, Kate works across all teams while leading Ascend’s development and fundraising, supporting the CEO and Board of Directors, leading research activities and coordinating organizational strategic planning and operations.

Kate was Ascend’s fifth employee and helped launch the nonprofit in 2016. Today, the organization is a significant contributor to Indiana’s talent development ecosystem and has more than 35 employees who help connect talent to meaningful careers with Indiana employers. Kate’s leadership has helped the organization to secure more than $56 million in philanthropic funding, connect more than 5,000 individuals to good and promising jobs and internships in Indiana, provide nearly 15,000 Indiana students and job seekers with one-on-one career support while helping more than 760 employers statewide find the kind of in-demand talent they need to continue to grow the Indiana economy.

Kate has also dedicated her relentless energy and critical thinking to Ascend’s research. In 2022, Kate led the creation of the game-changing report, Indiana’s Evolving Labor Market: How the Pandemic has Accelerated Misalignment in Talent Supply and Demand, which was the first to examine the short- and long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the labor market statewide and locally. The research informed state leaders at the Indiana General Assembly who passed legislation in 2023 that included the automatic enrollment in 21^st Century Scholars and requiring all Indiana high school seniors to file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

In her work and her personal life, Kate is motivated by community building and helping people to continue to grow. Her volunteer engagements have focused on organizations and activities that serve youth, young professionals, athletes and communities. She currently serves on the boards of the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) and IndyHub, is a prior board member of Orr Fellowship, and actively participates in New Shoe Day, a nonprofit that provides shoes to kids from under-resourced communities. Previously, she has coached volleyball at the middle and high school levels and served on several host committees through the Indiana Sports Corp.

Kate enjoys spending time with her husband, Neil, and her two boys, Jasper (3), and Finn (1). She is an avid runner, having completed several half and full marathons, including three times competing in the Boston Marathon.

Kate holds a Bachelor of Arts and Economics from DePauw University and a Master of Business Administration, Master of Sports Administration and Facility Management from Ohio University.

You can read the IBJ feature article on Kate and the other Forty Under 40 award recipients here.