Kate Hillis Boyd was born May 14, 1885 to Kate (Gordon) and Joseph Fulton Boyd.

After receiving a B.A. from Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania in 1905, Boyd attended the YWCA National Training School, 1914-15, earning a certificate in the one year course.

Boyd worked as YWCA Student Secretary at Winthrop College in Rock Hill, South Carolina from 1915 to 1918, then joined the YWCA's war and reconstruction efforts, serving as an Overseas Secretary in Dijon, Tours, and Paris, France from February 1918 to July 1919; and in Brussels, Belgium from October 1919 to October 1921.

On her return to the U.S., Boyd became Secretary for the YWCA Student Foyer for foreign college students in New York City, October 1921 to October 1922. She returned to her native Pennsylvania, taking the position of General Secretary of the Germantown (Pennsylvania) YWCA in September of 1923. In April 1930 she again went overseas, this time to be General Secretary of the YWCA of Manila, Philippine Islands.

From 1934 until her retirement in 1950, Boyd was Assistant Social Dean at the Penn Hall School in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

In addition to her work for the YWCA and Penn Hall School, Boyd was active in the American Association of University Women, Wilson College Alumnae Association, Red Cross, Children's Aid Society, and local women's clubs and Presbyterian churches.

Kate Hillis Boyd died February 26, 1976 in Chambersburg.