Prior to attending Washington University for her MSW, Katie graduated from the University of Miami in 2013 with a B.A. in Political Science. After college, Katie worked as a City Year AmeriCorps member in underserved schools in Denver and then as a City Year Team Leader, training AmeriCorps members to provide behavioral interventions. Katie has also worked as a habilitation specialist for adults with intellectual disabilities, with trauma survivors in various arenas, and in outdoor experiential learning as a whitewater raft guide and a snowboard instructor.
During her MSW program, Katie further developed her passion for working with adults with Substance Use Disorder. She first interned with the Missouri State Public Defender and is now interning with the St. Louis VA in their inpatient substance use rehabilitation treatment program, facilitating psychotherapy and psychoeducation groups, conducting individual psychotherapy, and providing case management to Veterans. She aims to continue this work after graduating this May.
Her career aspirations include furthering research on the connection between SUD and PTSD to create more effective, holistic treatment protocols for this subset of individuals and advocating to implement new and improved evidence-based SUD interventions into healthcare systems through macro-level policy work.