Fifth Year Graduate Student

Katie received her B.A. in Biochemistry from Claremont McKenna College in the spring of 2020. While in Claremont, she worked in the lab of Professor Babak Sanii synthesizing flexible PDMS fibers with applications as biosensors. She also spent time in Denver at the National Renewable Energy Lab studying dye-sensitized solar cells in the lab of Justin Johnson. After college, Katie took a gap year to teach middle school Chemistry and Algebra 1 at BASIS Phoenix in Arizona. Missing the California coast and her chemistry studies, she returned and began her graduate career at UCLA in the fall of 2021. In the Maynard group, Katie works on a stimuli-responsive system for glucagon delivery and projects involving degradable polymers. Outside of the lab, Katie is the outreach coordinator for the organization for cultural diversity in science (OCDS) and for the annual UCLA science fair, Exploring your universe (EYU). Her efforts in these organizations highlight her passion for creating a diverse and equitable environment in STEM higher education. In her free time, she enjoys reading and writing, working out, and going to the beach.