Kathryn Herr, Ph.D.

1. 
   2024 – 2025

   Emory University

   IRACDA FIRST Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow, Dept. of Biology

   NIH Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Award (IRACDA), Fellowships in Research and Science Teaching. Independent research paired with mentored teaching at a partner institution, Morehouse College.

2. 
   2018 – 2024

   Cornell University

   Ph.D., Microbiology

   Dissertation: The symphony of symbiosis: ecological and evolutionary impacts of microbial interactions with insects.

3. 
   2012 – 2016

   Willamette University

   B.A., Biology (minors in Chemistry & Chinese)

   Thesis: Secreted extracellular polysaccharide layer prevents phage binding on Caulobacter crescentus.

• BIO306: Principles of Microbiology

  2025
  Instructor · Morehouse College

  Co-taught this established upper-level course and redesigned parts of it to bring in more active learning and student-centred work, including spreading assessment across more and smaller assignments to make the course more accessible. Wrote, marked and built rubrics for seven assignments, a group project and four unit exams. Taught the unit on microbial interactions and applied microbiology on my own, co-taught the unit on microbial history and cell structure, and held weekly in-person and online office hours.

• BIOMI 6300: Computational Approaches for Microbial Systems

  2023
  Guest Instructor · Cornell University

  Designed learning outcomes and built a case study from my own research to teach upper-level bioinformatic analysis of next-generation sequencing data, using active learning (think-pair-share, live polling) to explore trade-offs between genomic and metagenomic, shallow and deep sequencing.

• Software Carpentry Workshop

  2023
  Workshop Helper · Cornell University

  Gave one-on-one support across a three-day workshop, helping attendees install and use R, RStudio, and GitHub, and troubleshooting issues across Mac, Windows, and Linux.

• BioG 1500: Investigative Biology

  2022–2023
  Guest Lecturer & Graduate Teaching Assistant · Cornell University

  Lectured the full 300-student course on the scientific method and hypothesis building, and taught two 3-hour, 18-student lab sections a week. Guided small groups from writing a research proposal on green algae and nutrient limitation through to experimental design, data analysis in R and Excel, figures, and a written scientific article, and supervised the undergraduate teaching assistants supporting the sections.

• BIOMI 2600: Microbiology of Human Contagious Diseases

  2021
  Graduate Teaching Assistant · Cornell University

  Facilitated remote discussions on infectious disease and microbiology, held office hours and small-group review sessions, wrote exam questions, and moved lecture and assessment materials onto Canvas, using its analytics to find where students were struggling.

• BIOMI 1100: College Dorm Microbiology

  2019–2020
  Graduate Teaching Assistant · Cornell University

  Led three weekly 2-hour discussion sections connecting microbiology to everyday life, and guided students through independent projects: writing a proposal, sampling and culturing a microbial community of their own choosing, then analysing the resulting 16S data and writing it up as a scientific article.

• Microbial Friends and Foes Summer REU

  2019–2021
  Guest Lecturer & Graduate Teaching Assistant · Cornell University

  Designed and taught a recurring workshop on how to read scientific articles for undergraduates from underrepresented backgrounds, and served as a teaching assistant and student liaison for the broader summer research program.

• BIOMI 2500: Public Health Microbiology

  2018–2019
  Graduate Teaching Assistant · Cornell University

  Taught in a flipped classroom where students met concepts through coursework and worked problems in class, guiding small groups through public health case studies and encouraging them to reason through unfamiliar material independently.

• BIO250: Microbiology (Lab)

  2015–2016
  Teaching Assistant · Willamette University

  Supported students in designing and running independent microbiology experiments, set up the laboratory space each week, and prepared all media and reagents.

• BIO130: Cell Biology & Genetics

  2015
  Teaching Assistant · Willamette University

  Held office hours and exam review sessions, and graded coursework throughout the term.

• Project Management for Postdoctoral Researchers

  2025
  Emory University · Project management · mentoring

• FIRST “How To Teach”

  2025
  Emory University · Teaching · pedagogy

• BIOG 6500: Biology Instructor Training

  2022–2023
  Cornell University · Teaching · pedagogy

• Teaching & Learning in the Diverse Classroom

  2022
  Cornell University · Teaching · inclusive practice

• ENTOM 4040: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

  2020
  Cornell University · Teaching · inclusive practice

I have advised and supported seven undergraduate researchers through independent projects: three over six years in the Hendry Lab at Cornell, three summer researchers on the Microbial Friends and Foes REU, and an honours research student during my postdoc at Emory. Mentoring is one of the most rewarding parts of the job, and it shapes how I teach.

1. Common fluorescent Pseudomonas in the phyllosphere can influence aphid behavior in diverse ways

   Herr, K., Schieber, J., & Hendry, T. A. (2024)

   bioRxiv

   doi:10.1101/2024.04.26.591271
2. Draft genome sequences of eight bacterial isolates from Pisum sativum leaf surfaces

   Smee, M. R., Herr, K. L., Abdul-Khaliq, S., Cadet, C. E. A., & Hendry, T. A. (2024)

   Microbiology Resource Announcements, 13(1), e00813-23

   doi:10.1128/mra.00813-23
3. The Lizard Gut Microbiome Changes with Temperature and Is Associated with Heat Tolerance

   Moeller, A. H., Ivey, K., Cornwall, M. B., Herr, K., Rede, J., Taylor, E. N., & Gunderson, A. R. (2020)

   Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 86(17), e01181-20

   doi:10.1128/AEM.01181-20
4. Exopolysaccharide production in Caulobacter crescentus: A resource allocation trade-off between protection and proliferation

   Herr, K. L., Carey, A. M., Heckman, T. I., Chávez, J. L., Johnson, C. N., Harvey, E., Gamroth, W. A., Wulfing, B. S., Van Kessel, R. A., & Marks, M. E. (2018)

   PLOS ONE, 13(1), e0190371

   doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0190371

• NIH IRACDA FIRST Postdoctoral Fellowship

  2024
  Emory University

  NIH Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Award (IRACDA), Fellowships in Research and Science Teaching.

• Provost Diversity Fellowship for Advanced Doctoral Students

  2023
  Cornell University · $16,247

  A competitive one-term fellowship, covering stipend and tuition, for advanced Ph.D. students who have contributed to Cornell's work on inclusion and belonging.

• Graduate Student Research Enhancement Award

  2021
  The Coleopterists Society · $1,991

  Examining the diversity of burying beetles (Nicrophorus spp.) and their associated Yarrowia symbionts in the Adirondack Mountains.

• Kieckhefer Adirondack Fellowship

  2020
  Cornell University · $979

  Fieldwork on burying beetles (Nicrophorus spp.) and their associated Yarrowia symbionts in the Adirondack Mountains.

• CALS Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award

  2020
  Cornell University

  Awarded for teaching BIOMI 1100: College Dorm Microbiology and BIOMI 2500: Public Health Microbiology.

• Microbiome Hackathon: Best Presentation

  2020
  Cornell University

• The Symphony of Symbiosis: Ecological and Evolutionary Impacts of Microbial Interactions with Insects

  2024
  Conference Talk

  CIHMID Summer Symposium, Cornell University

• The Symphony of Symbiosis: Ecological and Evolutionary Impacts of Microbial Interactions with Insects

  2024
  Invited Talk

  Dissertation Seminar, Cornell University

• An Investigation into Yarrowia-like Yeast Symbionts of Burying Beetles (Nicrophorus spp.)

  2023
  Invited Talk

  Microbiology Department Seminar, Cornell University

• Investigating the Relationship Between Burying Beetles (Nicrophorus spp.) and Associated Microbial Symbionts

  2023
  Poster

  Animal-Microbe Symbioses, Gordon Research Conference, Lucca, Italy

• Evolution of Yeast Symbionts from Burying Beetles (Nicrophorus spp.)

  2023
  Poster

  Animal-Microbe Symbioses, Gordon Research Seminar, Lucca, Italy

• An Investigation into Burying Beetle (Nicrophorus spp.) Symbionts

  2022
  Conference Talk

  Evolution Meeting, Cleveland, OH

• Write a Researcher (WAR)

  2021–2023
  Vice President

  A pen-pal program connecting high school students across the country with research mentors at Cornell University. I helped build and run the program from its first year, when it reached 200 high-school participants nationwide, and worked with Cornell to waive the graduate-school application fee for our participants.

• GRASSHOPR

  2019–2023
  Teaching Fellow

  The Graduate Student School Outreach Program connects STEM researchers with K-12 students in underrepresented districts of Tompkins County, NY. I co-developed and taught multi-day lesson plans for elementary classrooms on decomposition, immunity, and the history of microbiology, spotlighting diverse and underrepresented microbiologists.

• Expanding Your Horizons (EYH)

  2019–2024
  Buddy

  A yearly conference for hundreds of 7th–9th grade students from backgrounds underrepresented in STEM. I escorted student groups through a day of hands-on scientific learning.

• Production Associate I

  Jul 2017 – Jul 2018
  Blue Heron Biotech, LLC · Bothell, WA

  Performed DNA synthesis and sequence analysis within a multi-disciplinary team, meeting accuracy and throughput goals on the company's proprietary gene-synthesis platform. Ran Sanger sequencing and helped maintain the lab's pipetting robots.

• Field Technician

  Mar 2017 – Apr 2017
  Willamette University, Dept. of Biology · Delamar Valley, NV

  Studied the coevolution of Joshua trees (Yucca brevifolia) and yucca moths (genus Tegeticula) as part of a five-person field team under demanding desert conditions: surveying insect populations, running transects of Joshua tree seedlings, and collecting samples for lab analysis.

• Laboratory Technician

  Jun 2016 – Jan 2017
  Willamette University, Dept. of Biology · Salem, OR

  Researched evolutionary competition in Caulobacter crescentus using confocal microscopy, fluorescent proteins, and plaque assays to characterize extracellular polysaccharide layers across diverse strains. Supervised three junior research students and wrote up the work as a first-author publication.