MIAMI – Katherine Torres Loflin has been named the new program director for Palm Beach and Bradenton, Fla. Loflin has served as Knight Foundation’s community foundations and technical assistance program officer.

As program director for Palm Beach and Bradenton, Loflin will work with local leaders and a community advisory committee to identify funding opportunities and monitor Knight’s grant making. “Katherine’s depth of experience within Knight Foundation and her rich background will be great assets in serving as program director in these two Florida communities,” said Susan Patterson, director of Knight’s Community Partners Program.

In her position as community foundations and technical assistance program officer, Loflin has directed the technical assistance program for foundation grantees and Knight’s Community Foundations Initiative, which sponsors donor-advised funds in Knight communities. Loflin joined Knight Foundation in 2002 as a content program officer, specializing in civic engagement.

Prior to coming to Knight, she worked as a social issues consultant for an NBC-TV news affiliate and designed and taught media training seminars for nonprofit professionals at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Before that, she was the executive director of two nonprofit organizations. She received her master’s degree and Ph.D. in social work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Since its inception in 1950, Knight Foundation has awarded more than $1 billion in grants. In the Palm Beach area, the foundation has made 120 grants totaling nearly $26 million, and in Bradenton,138 grants totaling nearly $10 million.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes excellence in journalism worldwide and invests in the communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. To learn more about Knight Foundation’s transformational funding, visit www.knightfdn.org/annual.