Katy Shaw is Professor of 21st-century writing and publishing at Northumbria University, UK and Director of the UKRI/AHRC Creative Communities programme. Her research interests include diversity and inclusion in the creative industries (the subject of her 2022 TED talk) and the redistribution of the creative industries from the capital to the regions and nations as part of the 'levelling up agenda'.

She sits as a commissioner on the LGA Culture Commission and the Gordon Brown Union Commission. Her policy consultancy focuses on R&D, innovation and the role of education in cultural partnership working.