Katherine Hoffman, PhD, MPA

Policy & Rules Manager

Washington State Liquor & Cannabis Board

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Katherine Hoffman, PhD, MPA serves as the Policy & Rules Manager for the Washington State Liquor & 
Cannabis Board. She began her career as general practice paralegal in 1993, working with her husband in 
municipal, criminal and family matters. She has served the last sixteen years in Washington state 
government at the Office of the Attorney General, Department of Health, and Health Care Authority 
working on a variety of issues including Medicaid false claims and anti-kickback litigation, 
implementation of opioid prescribing reform law, and the development of cannabis, vapor, and alcohol 
policy, legislation and regulation. She holds both Doctorate and Master’s degrees in Leadership and 
Change from Antioch University Midwest; a both Master’s degree in public administration with a 
concentration in public policy, and a Bachelor’s degree in political science from The Evergreen State 
College. Her dissertation, Toward Socially Equitable Conditions: Change in Complex Regulatory Systems is 
scheduled to be published in the late summer of 2022. She is a contributing author to three chapters in 
Thomson-Reuter’s Cannabis Law Deskbook (now on its third edition), and has published peer reviewed 
work in the American Journal of Leadership and Ethics. Her research interest includes complexity theory 
and complex regulatory systems.