Kari combines a background in research computing facilitation and program leadership with a Ph.D. in Psychology. As a Research Computing Specialist at Northwestern, she draws on both areas of expertise to help researchers across disciplines navigate advanced computing resources and build effective workflows.
Before joining Northwestern, Kari served as the Core Coordinator and Research Facilitator for Kansas State University's Cognitive and Neurobiological Approaches to Plasticity research center, where she directed the Cognitive Neuroscience Core and supported computational research through the Neuroinformatics Core. In these roles, she mentored researchers in using supercomputing resources, developed user support and education programs, taught workshops on data analysis and research computing, and designed HPC data pipelines and user-focused documentation. This experience sharpened her ability to act as a liaison between researchers and cyberinfrastructure teams.
Kari earned her Ph.D. in Psychology from Kansas State University, where her research examined the trade-offs between effort costs and the value of information in human decision-making. Her doctoral work gave her firsthand insight into the computational demands facing experimental researchers, and the growing role of advanced computing in the social sciences. Outside of work, Kari enjoys oil painting, repairing electronics, and programming video games.