Katie McKenzie, Ph.D.

Professional Background

I grew up in south Overland Park, KS (a suburb of Kansas City) and went to Duke University for college. I started at Duke knowing I wanted to pursue a career in medicine, but it wasn't until my first research experience that I realized my passion for statistics. I decided to pursue a BS in Statistical Science while continuing the pre-med requirements and continued to grow in my passion for both medicine and statistics. Upon graduating in 2016, I decided to pursue both passions through an MD-PhD program and was immediately interested in the program at KUMC due to the collaborative nature between the variety of research groups on campus and the Department of Biostatistics. I am grateful and excited to be part of the MD-PhD program at KUMC and have greatly enjoyed my training here.

Currently, I am in my final year of the program. I worked with Dr. Jonathan Mahnken in the Department of Biostatistics throughout my doctoral program and earned my PhD in Biostatistics in 2022. My dissertation work focused on advancing our statistical methods for evaluating agreement, this work was funded by an NIH F30 grant and resulted in two first author publications to date. As I have transitioned back to clinical medicine, I am enjoying working with patients and applying evidence-based-care. 

In my spare time, I love to be outdoors, practice yoga and spend time with my family. I also enjoy visiting new coffee shops in KC. I am happy to respond to any questions prospective students may have!