Kate received her Ph.D. in Pathology and Microbiology from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 2013. Her background lies firmly in bioinformatics and she specializes in the identification of actionable hypotheses using network-based analysis of genomic and proteomic "big" data. Other interests include expanding these approaches to studies in public health, disaster preparedness, and strategic biodefense. Kate has been a member of the UNO Bioinformatics research group since 2005 and has found success collaborating on a number of disease-related biomedical research projects including but not limited to hearing, arenaviruses, HIV/AIDs, Chikungunya virus, Burkitt's lymphoma, and aging.