Moving to Yokohama in 1980, Kathryn grew up attending Japanese and International Schools where she acquired her native fluency in Japanese, and experience navigating the intersection of cultures. She returned to the United States to attend, to her liberal parents' horror, the United States Naval Academy. Commissioned and ensign in 1998, Kathryn spent the next nine years as an H-60 helicopter pilot. She is the veteran of Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom. Kathryn left the uniformed service in 2007, a year after the birth of her first child. Her desire to serve, however, was unchanged, and Kathryn decided to return to school to launch a new career, this time as a sculptor, rather than tool, of national policy. Kathryn studied International and Global Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School, with a particular focus on nuclear proliferation and security issues. She is currently employed by IBM as a federal sector consultant.