Katrina Pratt Roebuck’s career spans more than 20 years in executive leadership positions, developing and implementing services for the city of Philadelphia’s most vulnerable populations. Her experience includes program and policy development and administration in the areas of poverty, homelessness, affordable housing, education, and behavioral health. Pratt Roebuck has led large teams of social services professionals and managed multi-million dollar projects, successfully executing impactful, citywide initiatives.
Much of Pratt Roebuck’s work has included standing up new and innovative programming, coalition building, community engagement, and systems-level integration and change. Throughout her career, she has led the development of successful technological platforms, connecting thousands of Philadelphians to services that have improved the quality and trajectory of their lives.
Today, Pratt Roebuck is the CEO of Uplifme and the Uplifme Resource Hub (URH). She launched Uplifme in 2021 with the intent of addressing the long-standing gap in connecting people to real-time information on available resources addressing the social determinants of health, in an easy-to-use format. Social services professionals can also find professional development resources through one-on-one coaching and the Uplifme Institute.
The Uplifme Resource Hub complements this work by providing resource coordination for individuals who require additional assistance connecting to services. Pratt Roebuck’s lived experience in impoverished and low-income communities informs her work and fuels her compassion and drive to increase health equity for BIPOC and underserved communities.
Pratt Roebuck is a graduate of Julia R. Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School in Philadelphia, received a Bachelor’s in Psychology from Howard University, and a Master’s in Business Administration from LaSalle University.
Why does this nominee deserve to be recognized for the 2024 SUCCESS® Women of Influence awards?
As a first-generation college graduate on her mother’s side of the family, Pratt Roebuck attended Howard University. As an undergraduate student, she could not afford books, but did not want to burden her hard-working parents with heavy expenses. Instead, she photocopied chapters of many books from her friends—and used that same tenacity to graduate successfully, attend graduate school and receive an MBA. Pratt Roebuck has always worked hard and figured out how to make it to the next step, pushing forward her goals.
Coming from a modest background, she did not have “connections“ in city government but was able to network and achieve senior leadership positions through five health and human services agencies in Philadelphia, serving thousands of people each year.
Pratt Roebuck developed and implemented new and effective programming that changed the trajectories of hundreds of lives through programs serving people experiencing homelessness, housing insecurity, poverty, education disadvantages, and behavioral health challenges. She also spearheaded key efforts in Philadelphia that were funded by the Obama administration and propelled innovative programming through multi-agency and multi-sectoral work in the areas of permanent housing, the opioid epidemic in Philadelphia, trauma initiatives, and population health.
She has also supported many professionals in their ascent to higher levels of leadership in city government, including individuals who went on to become executive directors at local community-based organizations. Pratt Roebuck is often tapped to speak at and participate in conferences and thought leadership spaces across the country.
In 2015, Pratt Roebuck played a key leadership role in helping to end veteran homelessness, as defined by the Obama administration, in Philadelphia. In 2016, she supported the city’s antipoverty efforts by leading a collective impact model addressing five components of poverty prevention—today known as the social determinants of health. Pratt Roebuck’s work helped connect hundreds of people with jobs, benefits, quality early education, workforce opportunities, and food resources. This effort required the coordination of dozens of government and non-profit stakeholders.
Between 2018 and 2019, Pratt Roebuck played a role in leading the city’s efforts to expand the reading programs of 3-18 schools. She demonstrates the same tenacity today by working with the Department of Behavior Health and supporting their efforts to help homeless individuals address trauma in a city plagued by gun violence—while simultaneously applying a population health lens to this work. She has supported these efforts by leading internal and external collaboratives, setting goals and priorities, building units and teams, and garnering resources to bring programs to life. One such example is “Trauma to Triumph,“ a program that provides five components of programming to teens between the ages of 16-18 who live in high-poverty, high-crime areas—and ultimately, provides them with support, creativity, and joy.
Today, Pratt Roebuck also leads Uplifme and the Uplifme Resource Hub. Her 25 years of experience in leadership, implementation, innovation, subject matter expertise, and mentorship of young leaders. She helps people who need resources find those resources while simultaneously supporting upcoming leaders to advance in their careers while practicing wellness.
Through Uplifme and the Uplifme Resource Hub, Pratt Roebuck has coached and provided training to social service professionals who have expressed that her experience and knowledge have been invaluable in helping them develop as leaders.
As a BIPOC woman, Pratt Roebuck is particularly interested in and actively supports and mentors other women of color—both through subject-related work and by establishing confidence and worthiness to take up space. Pratt Roebuck is authentic, compassionate, innovative, and hard-working. As a social entrepreneur, she has a commitment to helping social service industry professionals enhance their own skills, efficiency, and well-being—and ultimately, pursue their goals in the service of the millions of vulnerable individuals and families in need across the United States.