Hi there!

I’m Katherine Rudick, an EdTech operator & silly goose… I mean… systems strategist focused on helping early-stage organizations scale with integrity.

What brought me to this work…

After completing my Masters in 2016, I began a fast-paced tour through Higher Education, supporting various roles and departments across academia: presidents and executive leadership, development, advising, and, at one point, MIT’s Executive Medical Director.

The desire to support the world of educators and improve outcomes for students led me to EdTech in 2020 where I have worked across sales, partnership success, recruiting operations, implementation strategy, workflow design, and GTM systems.

My work has ranged from building operational infrastructure for rapidly scaling teams to designing project management systems for recruiting operations, supporting enterprise sales efforts, developing enablement frameworks, and implementing AI-supported workflows that reduce friction across organizations.

What I’ve learned is that many growing companies do not fail because of a lack of vision. They struggle because information becomes fragmented, systems evolve reactively, and operational complexity starts outpacing internal structure.

That is the space where I do my best work.

Why “River”…

River began as a way of describing the kind of operational partnership I believe organizations (and individuals) need to thrive:

adaptive, connective, human-centered, and capable of creating movement without adding unnecessary friction.

The name reflects my belief that healthy systems should create flow rather than obstruction. Strong operations help people communicate clearly, work more effectively together, and sustain growth without exhausting the people responsible for carrying it forward.

My approach combines

strategic thinking with deep operational fluency.

I naturally work across departments, translating between founders, sales teams, operations, customer success, recruiting, implementation, and product. I’m especially skilled at identifying patterns, surfacing hidden friction, and turning loosely held institutional knowledge into scalable systems that reduce stress for busy teams.

I bring a blend of:

  • operational systems thinking

  • GTM and customer lifecycle strategy

  • AI-enabled workflow design

  • process architecture

  • cross-functional communication

  • implementation support

  • organizational clarity-building

  • humor, dad jokes, and good analogies

Most importantly, I care deeply about building systems that remain human. The goal is never process for process’s sake. The goal is creating structures that support the real individuals doing the work while helping organizations grow sustainably and intelligently.

River exists to help founders and teams move from reactive execution toward operational clarity, strategic alignment, and sustainable momentum.

Ready to get on board?