AGA PDT 2026

Kathleen Walters
Former Chief Privacy Officer
US (IRS) Internal Revenue Service


Kathleen Walters is a senior executive with nearly two decades of leadership experience at the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Department of the Treasury. She most recently served as Chief Privacy Officer at the IRS, where she led enterprise-wide privacy strategy, governance, and compliance for one of the largest financial institutions in the world. Kathleen co-founded the IRS Privacy Office in 2007 and was responsible for creating and implementing the agency's first Identity Theft Strategy. Throughout her tenure, she held executive roles spanning operations, human capital, and enterprise risk, including serving as Deputy Chief of Staff to the IRS Commissioner, and an Executive Lead at Treasury helping to build the Troubled Asset Relief Program during the 2008 financial crisis. Kathleen holds a J.D. from University of Virginia School of Law and a B.A. in Government from Georgetown University. She is an adjunct professor of law at her alma mater, Virginia Law, where she teaches the seminar Privacy in Practice: Building and Leading a Modern Privacy Office.

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