Katherine "Kate" Knuth was born on May 15, 1981, to parents Daniel Knuth and Joann Knuth.
As an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, Knuth studied biology and philosophy. She worked at the Field Museum of Natural History and served as National President of the coed Venturing program of the Boy Scouts of America. After graduating with her B.A, Knuth spent a year in Norway as a Fulbright student, studying how the country's strong environmental ethic affected the development of oil into one of its major industries. She then moved to England to continue her education, completing a M.Sc at the University of Oxford in biodiversity conservation. She spent three weeks in Washington D.C. trying to secure interviews with members of Congress for a study of environmental voting records and leadership.[2]
In late August 2005, while Knuth was finishing her master's thesis, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Knuth was concerned about how an extreme weather event intersected with racial and economic injustice in ways that made many people suffer. She had been concerned about climate change, and decided to run for public office.[2]
After her stint in the legislature, Knuth returned to work as the Director for the Boreas Leadership Program at the University of Minnesota Institute on the Environment.[4]
On June 19, 2017, the City of Minneapolis hired Knuth as chief resilience officer, a new position that coordinated the city's work on urban challenges from housing affordability to climate change.[5] In February 2018, one month after Mayor Jacob Frey was sworn in and seven months into her new role, Knuth resigned, saying that she and Frey did not have the same vision for Minneapolis.[6] She had been conducting interviews and surveys and passed her research off to her successor.[7]
On March 2, 2021, Knuth announced her campaign for mayor of Minneapolis in the city's 2021 election as a member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party.[1] She said she decided to run because of what she called Frey's lack of leadership and the absence of other candidates who could assemble a broad coalition to help move the city forward.[6] Knuth advanced to the final round of ranked voting, earning 43.8% of the vote as Frey was reelected.
Knuth and her husband, Sam, have one daughter. They reside in Minneapolis's Bryn Mawr neighborhood.[12]
Knuth's father, Daniel Knuth, served in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 1983 to 1989. Her uncle Gordon Backlund served in the Minnesota House of Representatives in 1985 and 1986.[13][14]
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