Fil-Am appointed to top U.S. Census Bureau post

Ditas Katague has been named associate director of communications of the U.S. Census Bureau. US CENSUS

Filipino American Ditas Katague is now associate director of communications, tasked with leading the internal and external communications work of the nation’s largest statistical agency, the U.S. Census Bureau announced on April 13.

Her responsibilities include oversight of marketing, public affairs, congressional and intergovernmental affairs, partner engagement and media relations, according to a release from the bureau.

“Ditas Katague brings a wealth of knowledge, experience and leadership to the Census Bureau,” said Census Bureau Director Robert L. Santos.

“I congratulate Ms. Katague on her appointment and look forward to working with her to help communicate the important work of the Census Bureau to the American people, government leaders and policymakers.”

Before joining the Census Bureau, Katague was director of the California Complete Count – Census 2020 Office, the outreach and communications campaign that worked to ensure a complete population count of historically undercounted Californians. This built on her experience leading the state’s decennial census outreach efforts in 2000 and 2010.

In 2000, as chief deputy campaign director for the Governor’s 2000 Census California Complete Count campaign, she led a groundbreaking multilingual, multimedia outreach effort that resulted in a mail-in response return rate that outpaced the national rate.

From 2012 to 2018, she served on the Census Bureau’s National Advisory Committee on Race, Ethnicities and Other Populations, including three years as its chair.

An expert in multiethnic outreach and civic engagement, Katague also served as chief of staff to the California Public Utilities Commission, where she improved public participation and access to the energy and telecommunications utility rate and regulation process.

Since 1998, Katague has served on the Sacramento Center Advisory Board for the Sol Price School of Public Policy, University of Southern California. She holds an MPA from USC and a BA from UC Berkeley.