Katrina Wilson, PhD

PM at Allucent, Durham NC

Kat received a BS in Chemistry, Biology, and Art (3 degrees, baby!) from the University of Redlands, CA in 2015. She spent a year working before going to graduate school at UCLA in 2016 for a PhD in Chemistry. In 2017 she switched to the Segura Lab and joined before their move to Duke. She completed her MS in Chemistry from UCLA in 2018 and then became a PhD candidate at Duke in BME. Her PhD thesis was focused on engineering MAP scaffolds for angiogenesis and neural progenitor cell recruitment after stroke. Kat received the Dean’s award for mentoring and had her first baby while writing her thesis. She continued for a few months in the lab as a research project manager before leaving academia to work at contract research organizations.

She told us there is one embarrassing Tatiana-related moment that lives rent-free in her brain: “Lindsay, Yining and I were getting ready to move to Duke, and I didn’t know if Tatiana would let me bring my couch. I texted the girls for advice about whether I should ask her, and somehow I accidentally added Tatiana to the text group 😅😱 Needless to say, our couch made it to Durham!”

Kat also offers current students this advice from someone who’s been there: “If something bothers you – speak up. Tatiana is always there to listen and try to accommodate. If something bothers someone else, listen. Your lab isn’t just your family – they’re the same people who will work with you in the future. Your impression and consideration for one another matters.”