Kathy grew up in Tampa, Florida at a time when cultural institutions in the state were few and far between. The exception was the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, where she was exposed to the idea of a museum, an historic house, the preservation of an 18th Century Venetian theater, and one of only three bronze copies in the world taken directly from MIchelangelo's David (the other two are in Buffalo, NY and Florence, Italy). An exceptional undergraduate education in the department of Art History at Florida State University cemented her passion and devotion to art.
After a Master's degree in Art History from Chapel Hill, Kathy ascertained being an art historian was not in the cards and through employment in the museum gift shop at the Museum of Florida History in Tallahassee, she had the opportunity to take a week-long Smithsonian workshop on "Preventive Care of Museum Objects" in 1984. The conservation bug bit and after 6 years of acquiring the pre-requisites and experience required, she entered the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation in 1990. Initially planning on a focus on Photograph Conservation, she became enchanted by the subject of "joined wooden objects" (as one does just by being at Winterthur) and switched her focus to Furniture Conservation.
Her career has taken her to amazing places, including Colonial Williamsburg, The J.Paul Getty Museum, The Oakland Museum of California, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, and eventually back to Winterthur Museum, in the dream job of Senior Furniture Conservator beginning in 2020. She has been active in the Wooden Artifacts Group (WAG) of AIC since 1992, serving as Program Chair, Specialty Group Chair, and Secretary/Treasurer. One of her proudest accomplishments has been assisting in the organization of WAG's two Furniture in France Study Tours and the follow-up French-American Partnership.