Kathleen Parr spent her early years in various suburbs outside of Detroit, Michigan. After receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree at Michigan State, she moved to London with her future husband Stephen for a six month work/study program. Afterwards, they backpacked through Europe and returned to Connecticut where they worked and finished their Master’s degrees at the University of Connecticut. In 2000 they moved to Bethesda, Maryland where she had accepted a position with PG&E National Energy Group. In 2004 they returned to Connecticut and settled into a home in Burlington where Kathleen consults part-time on energy management for merchant power plants. They currently spend their winters working from their condominium in Austin, Texas.Kathleen feels extremely lucky and gratified to have had a career in the energy industry, having worked for and with some amazing bright people, many of whom she continues to call friends. Most recently she has worked for and as a consultant to Competitive Power Ventures, a power development company based in Silver Springs, Maryland. She has been responsible for the P&L at many power plants nationwide, spending much of her time maximizing profits for distressed assets, which for her has been very rewarding.
Kathleen and her “soulmate husband” Stephen have been married for sixteen years and been partners for twenty-five. Together they have shared a love of travel and adventure, traveling to over one hundred countries, including a recent three-month self-tour of Southeast Asia and Australia. In addition, over the past ten years, their passion for biking and the outdoors has taken them on bike treks to France, Spain, Italy and Portugal. Kathleen estimates that they have biked close to one thousand miles to date in Europe. They enjoy hiking as well with their largest challenge being the ascent of Mount Adams, climbing four thousand five hundred feet over five miles.
She is a proud supporter of Rails to Trails, Planned Parenthood and Susan G. Komen for the Cure. She is also proud to be a part of Rotary, chairing the Avon-Canton golf tournament auction and working as a camp counselor during Rotary of Austin’s Project Enterprise, a weekend entrepreneurship workshop and competition for high school juniors.
Kathleen has a love for reading and is a charter member of the Austin Written Script and Open Minds Experience (AWSOME) book club, which has been going strong since 2010. To keep in shape when not traveling, she enjoys doing dance workouts such as Zumba and Cardio Dance.