M. Kate Grabowski received her Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Epidemiology in 2014. Prior to that, she received a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology from the Pennsylvania State University and a Master’s of Science in Epidemiology, also from Johns Hopkins University. After completing her Ph.D. Kate joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins University. She currently teaches courses in concepts and methods in infectious disease epidemiology, and is a core faculty member in the Johns Hopkins Infectious Disease Dynamics Group. She also is a senior collaborating scientist with the Rakai Health Sciences Program (RHSP), a world-renowned HIV research organization surveying ~20,0000 persons annually in southern Uganda.
Her primary research interests include the epidemiology and transmission dynamics of sexually transmitted viral infections, local geography and structure of sexual contact networks, and viral phylodynamics. Kate’s research focuses on the transmission, prevention, and control of sexually transmitted viral infections in sub-Saharan Africa; however, she is also involved in domestic HIV research largely focused in Baltimore. She is primarily funded through a K01 research fellowship which aims to characterize the role of women in African HIV transmission networks using mixed-methodologies including viral phylogenetics. She has spent a decade working in sub-Saharan Africa where she has been involved in various infectious disease epidemiological and laboratory-based studies. Kate is also currently a member of the Bill and Melinda Gates funded PANGEA-HIV consortium. PANGEA-HIV aims to generate 20,000 whole genome HIV sequences to understand HIV transmission dynamics and pathogenesis in Africa.