“Creativity is a wild mind with a disciplined eye.”
Cathleen O’Malley (she/her) is cultural event producer, senior arts administrator, and performing artist based in Washington, DC.
A native of Prince George’s County, Maryland, Cathleen returned to the DMV in 2021 after over a decade in key management roles at professional nonprofit arts institutions such as Cleveland Public Theatre, Dobama, Touchstone Theatre, and the BorderLight Festival, the latter of which she helped launch in 2019 and is now entering its 7th season.
A resourceful and natural collaborator, Cathleen is dedicated to fostering meaningful connections between artists and audiences through nationally-recognized community engagement programs, cross-sector partnerships, creative placemaking initiatives, and live cultural events that ignite audiences and advance the role of the arts in public life.
Since 2024, Cathleen has served on the artistic programming team of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where she produces a year-round portfolio of comedy, jazz, classical new music, and the Arts & Wellbeing initiative, a series of multidisciplinary programs exploring the intersection of arts and science.
Header photograph by H. Scott Heist / Splinter Cottage.