Mary Kathryn Paynter

Director of Executive Communications

Mary Kathryn Paynter is the Director of Executive Communications at Democracy Forward.

Mary Kathryn brings nearly twenty years of experience building successful brands in the legal and civic sectors. For the last decade, she has advised clients such as the City of Houston and the LBJ School of Public Affairs in leveraging consumer-facing marketing frameworks for public good. She has served as a CLE speaker on branding for the State Bar of Texas and as a lecturer on branding at Texas Women’s University. She began her career working on a public affairs campaign for The Aransas Project v. Shaw, organizing conservative lawmakers, stakeholders, & citizens in South Texas to protect the last native migratory flock of Whooping Cranes.

In addition, she has deep experience as an advocate and community organizer in Texas, focusing on using scalable new media to build accessible mutual aid structures for vulnerable populations in crisis.

She has a B.A. from The University of Texas at Austin, where she completed an intensive leadership seminar with her late mentor, Dr. Sarah Weddington.