Draper and Kramer, Incorporated, a national full-service real estate firm, announced that Kathryn Jorgensen, vice president of investment management, has been named among CRE’s Aspiring Leaders of 2026 by industry publication GlobeSt.
The annual accolade recognizes talented professionals under the age of 40 who are making significant contributions to their company’s overall success and creating lasting impacts on the commercial real estate industry.
The GlobeSt. recognition specifically highlights Jorgensen’s hands-on approach to complex challenges, such as how she navigated the departure of an anchor tenant and environmental hurdles to seamlessly complete a recent asset disposition. The honor also calls out the importance of her retail expertise in repositioning commercial space at select multifamily properties, and her efforts to implement new protocols and processes that have enhanced efficiency and ensured consistency across departments.
Jorgensen joined Draper and Kramer in 2020. In her current role, she is responsible for asset management, acquisition and disposition functions for a portion of the firm’s multifamily portfolio that spans Chicago, St. Louis, Dallas and Austin, including improving and monitoring the performance of the portfolio throughout each asset’s life cycle. She is currently focused on positioning existing assets, including recent acquisitions, to maximize return on investment through strategic planning of property renovations and operational enhancements.
Additionally, Jorgensen is active in the industry through her involvement with groups such as the Near South Planning Board, a nonprofit whose mission is to plan, guide and encourage a program of development for the near south area of Chicago bordered by Jackson Boulevard to the north and 35th Street to the south, including the South Loop. She also actively helps encourage young professionals to enter the industry through involvement with the University of Virginia’s student real estate organizations.
Jorgensen first entered the real estate industry with a leasing position after completing her bachelor’s degree at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill. This sparked her interest in asset management as an opportunity to be involved in big-picture strategic decisions around property budgets, planning capital improvements and more. To facilitate this transition, she earned her MBA at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.
