Katy started a PhD program at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in fall 2020. She works with Dr. Joshua Drew, a conservation ecologist, and Dr. Rebecca Rundell, an evolutionary biologist. Katy's research will be funded by a 2020 National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship. She will study marine invertebrate biodiversity in the western Pacific. Her interests include marine invasions, invertebrate taxonomy, social-biological interaction, scuba, and biodiversity conservation.

Katy worked as a Research Technician for the Marine Invasions Lab at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) in Edgewater, MD. She worked for the lab from April 2015 to August 2020. Katy graduated with a B.A. in Environmental Science and Maritime Studies from Williams College in Williamstown, MA in 2014. She has worked in many places including Alaska, Pacific Northwest, San Francisco Bay, Southern California, Panama, Florida Keys, Chesapeake Bay, New England Coast, Maine Coast, and Northeastern Australia.

Originally from Macon, GA, Katy now lives in Syracuse, NY. She was a member of the SERC Women in Science Committee, a scholarship recipient from the Women Divers Hall of Fame, and was the intern coordinator for the Our World Underwater Lee Somers AAUS Dive Training Internship (2017-2019). She received the NSF GRFP in 2020.