Kathy earned a B.S in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After post-doctoral fellowships in biochemistry and tumor biology, she joined the Pathology faculty at the University of Rochester, where her research focused on quality control and biomedical applications for the emerging discipline of flow cytometry. This focus continued at SmithKline Beckman R&D, where she served as director of their first flow cytometry core facility and worked with Paul Wallace to help SmithKline Clinical Laboratories implement immunophenotyping and DNA analysis by flow cytometry. At Zynaxis, Inc., a biotechnology start-up co-founded with colleagues from SmithKline, her focus shifted to cell-based immunotherapy and development of cell tracking reagents. Since 1996, Kathy has been Chief Operating Officer of SciGro, Inc., a biomedical consultancy that she co-founded with Dr. Betsy Ohlsson-Wilhelm. SciGro works with inventors, entrepreneurs, and investors developing early stage pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical diagnostic, and life science products to generate time-efficient feasibility testing plans and grants-based seed funding.   

Kathy has served as an ISAC Councilor, Associate Editor and reviewer for Cytometry, Adjunct Professor at the Thomas Jefferson University School of Health Professions in Philadelphia, and on CLSI subcommittees developing guidelines for clinical immunophenotyping of normal and neoplastic leukocytes and for validation of flow cytometric assays. Together with Kylie Price and Paul Wallace, she co-authored the Proliferation Monitoring e-learning course offered by ISAC’s online CYTO University. As co-founder and long-time faculty member of the internationally recognized Annual Courses on Applications of Cytometry, she loves interacting with, teaching, and learning from cytometrists from around the world. Her research interests include cell-based immunotherapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases, and novel methods for monitoring cell trafficking and function. 

Favorite quotes:  

Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm. (W. Churchill) 

The answer is “It depends….”  The question is “On what?” (K. Muirhead)