Katie was born and raised in West Bend, Wisconsin. She got a BA in Psychology from Wellesley College near Boston, Massachusetts. After graduating in 1999, she moved to Santa Monica, California and worked in the Athletic Department at UCLA. Next, she got an MS in Environmental Health Sciences, with an Emphasis in Industrial Hygiene and a Minor in Hazardous Waste, from the UCLA School of Public Health. Katie has a unique reason for attending graduate school that you should ask her about.

Katie began her career as an Industrial Hygienist at Shell Oil in Wilmington, California. After graduating with her Masters, she relocated to Lake Wales, Florida to become a Safety Specialist at Florida’s Natural Growers. From there, she transitioned to an Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) Manager at Invitrogen, a biotech company in Madison, Wisconsin. Invitrogen merged with Applied Biosystems to become Life Technologies and Katie moved to the headquarters in Carlsbad, California as the Global Health and Safety Lead. Thermo Fisher Scientific acquired Life Technologies shortly thereafter and she transitioned to a Senior Manager of EHS in the Corporate Risk Department. In 2017, Katie moved to Hunter Industries, an irrigation manufacturing company, and currently serves as the Global Risk Director. She oversees EHS, Commercial Insurance, Enterprise Risk Management and Business Continuity for 5000 employees at 6 sites globally. Katie loves her job and appreciates working with data and statistics to create balanced strategies that protect all aspects of Hunter, especially the employees, the environment in which we operate and the longevity of the company.   

Outside of work and RIMS, Katie also serves on the Palomar College Foundation Board. In her free time, she likes to play tennis and basketball, watch musicals, hang out with family and friends, and taxi her three children (12, 14 and 16 years old) to their ridiculous number of activities and social events.