Staff Spotlight: Catherine Rauseo

Communications Manager Catherine Rauseo came to the Rennie Center in 2015 with a wealth of knowledge in communications, stemming from her work in a variety of settings that span from newsroom to nonprofit. From Providence, to New York, to Boston, Catherine has been using the power of the written word and graphic design to effectively communicate policy and advocacy to wide-ranging audiences.

With her eye for detail and ability to connect with various audiences, Catherine joined the organization with goals already in mind. She wanted to make Rennie’s work more accessible—from the language used in outreach to the usability of the website. To expand the organization’s audience, Catherine wanted to make Rennie’s work more welcoming and friendly to anyone interested in learning more, not just those with a deep knowledge of education and policy.

She was able to do this through highlights and blog posts with inclusive overviews of our work so that anyone could join conversations surrounding education in the state. She also worked to make the organization’s emails and newsletters—which she sees as a critical entry point to our research and practice work—more appealing and engaging by using informative graphics and accessible language.

Having led the redesign and launch of two websites before this, Catherine was also eager to take on revamping the Rennie Center website. In 2017, she oversaw the complete redesign of Rennie’s website, focusing on creating a user-friendly design that made the organization’s research easy to access and search as well as creating an interactive data dashboard for the Center’s Condition of Education in the Commonwealth project.

Before the shift to the current virtual work world, Catherine had also planned all the Rennie Center’s public events, which brought together hundreds of participants every year from every corner of the state.

Now, Catherine largely sees her independent work as developing and maintaining the sleek and professional look of the organization’s website, branding, blog, social media, and newsletter. However, she also constantly works with the entire staff across the board, jumping in at different parts of every Rennie project and supporting efforts to communicate the work out to those who can benefit from it. This outreach takes various forms, such as op-eds and press releases, building and sustaining relationships with members of the media, and cementing Rennie as an established and trusted resource for news outlets.  

When asked about her favorite projects, Catherine highlighted the experience of redesigning the website. She appreciated the ability to work with everyone on the team on the same project, which rarely happens considering the range of products the organization puts out. She collaborated with colleagues when it came to effectively presenting each individual project, increasing interactivity, testing website features, collecting information regarding how to communicate the work better, writing, and designing the vision of the site. This project, in particular, fulfilled her preexisting interest in website usability, recalling classes she had taken on the subject matter.

Graphic and visual work is a high spot for Catherine, who enjoys using her design background to create graphics for the organization. Her eye for design can be seen in the Rennie branding across the website, newsletter, social media, various reports, and more. She also identified writing blog posts as an enjoyable project because she is able to see her passion for writing intersect with education policy; she learns more about the nuts and bolts of the work while making these often complicated topics more digestible, helping spark the same interest among readers.

Catherine graduated from Providence College with a bachelors degree in English and Social Science and studied digital and graphic design at New York University. When she’s not working, Catherine is busy chasing around her one-year-old twins and enjoying time with her family.