Kathryn Lott has worked in nonprofit administration for over 20 years. In 2014, she co-founded Lott Entertainment, a creative project management, and special events firm to support nonprofits. During her tenure as director of operations for the Society of Performing Arts, she brought such luminaries as Al Pacino, Lily Tomlin, and Anthony Bourdain to the Houston stage. As marketing director for Houston Grand Opera, she founded their young professional program which is, to date, still the largest of its kind in the world. Kathryn is a past board president of the Catastrophic Theatre and a previous board member of the Fresh Arts Coalition. She joined Southern Smoke as executive director in 2017 just before Hurricane Harvey struck Houston. She is dedicated to the mission that was born out of that disaster and all that the Emergency Relief Fund stands for and provides to food and beverage workers who are in crisis.