Katherine Baron is a senior associate consultant for HKA based in Washington DC. She has four years of experience in project scheduling and controls. Her primary responsibilities include the preparation of expert reports, evaluating cause and effect from project records, and performing schedule reviews to determine constructions delays and support complex claim cases.

Katherine was born in Bogotá, Colombia, and moved to Washington DC in 2012. She received her bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of America, Bogotá. After graduation, Katherine joined Minipak S.A.S., a leading company in the flexible packaging market. At Minipak, she worked as a development engineer in the technical department, where innovations in flexible packaging were developed.

Katherine’s desire for learning, development, and adventure prompted her to move to Washington, DC, where she learned English, and later pursued a master’s degree in Engineering Management. In 2017, Katherine received her degree from Catholic University in Washington, DC.

Her career as a claim consultant began in 2018 when she joined HKA, a leading global consultancy in risk mitigation and dispute resolution, developing expertise in claims, advisory, forensic accounting, commercial damages, and consulting services for the infrastructure, commercial, private, and government sectors. Since then, she has performed CPM schedule reviews, evaluations, developments, and maintenance and has utilized techniques such as collapsed as-built, impacted as-planned, and windows analysis as a component of the forensic delay analysis. Furthermore, she has performed productivity analysis and identified inefficiencies resulting in overcharges for unreasonable and unproductive work. As part of her passion for learning new things, she enhanced her computer skills in Acumen Fuse, Primavera P6, Microsoft Project, and Relativity. Katherine has been instrumental to the company in projects ranging from ports constructions, fuel conversion & nuclear plants in the United States to wind farms in Argentina and airports in Chile.

Katherine was first introduced to AACE International by her manager, who described to her the benefits of being part of the association. In addition to the community, the library of recommended practices, technical papers, and certifications that AACE offers are a valuable resource for professionals looking to advance their knowledge, skills, and careers. Since 2019, Katherine has enrolled in different committees such as Claims & Dispute Resolution, Planning & Scheduling, and the Women in Project Controls, and has found valuable support from the community and a great platform to connect with peers and professionals. As an example, in 2020, Katherine collaborated with AACE members Marina Sominsky and Ron Winter to write her first technical paper which was presented at the 2021 virtual conference & expo. The technical paper, PS-3648 Getting Back to Basics: Update Schedule Review by the Numbers (Recommended Practice Numbers, that is), focuses on the key documents that aid in determining the main topics of the review memorandum, assist in identifying the culprits that make schedule updates non-compliant, as well as provide sound guidelines on how to gauge schedule’s overall quality. Katherine has expressed that co-authoring this paper was a great experience that allowed her to learn from experts and connect with the project controls community.

Katherine’s advice to the next generation of young professionals is to have the initiative to look for opportunities, learn new things, and never settle for the status quo. She believes that people who constantly search and investigate new concepts will continue to grow and develop both their professional and personal lives. She emphasizes that a great way to advance a career is to connect with professionals in nearby areas and get involved in organizations such as AACE.