KATHRYN LANIER

Kathryn Lanier, Ph.D., is a highly accomplished science education leader and master communicator, currently serving as the Director of STEM Education Outreach at Southern Research in Birmingham, AL. Lanier's position was the first of its kind—a job with no guidebook. Since 2017, Lanier and her team have built their program from the ground up — crafting learning experiences that have impacted over 250,000 Alabama learners.

As a STEM education advocate on Alabama's political stage, Lanier serves on a number of state committees
and councils that influence education policy. In 2019, she was appointed to Governor Kay Ivey's Advisory
Council for Excellence in STEM, where she chaired the STEM Exploration and Discovery Committee, a group charged with making recommendations to shape STEM education across Alabama. Lanier was also appointed to represent Alabama's 6th congressional district on the Mathematics Course of Study Committee and Alabama's 7th congressional district on the Science Course of Study Committee.

She serves as one of Governor Ivey's at-large representatives on the Alabama STEM Council. Her work on the council resulted in the creation of Alabama STEM Explorers, a 3X Emmy Awardnominated series of stimulating 30-minute television episodes that air on PBS. Lanier also hosted the show, drawing in an audience of over 100,000 viewers each week.

Lanier is an accomplished scientist, having earned her Ph.D. in chemistry from Georgia Tech, where
she worked as part of the NASA Center for the Origin of Life. She received the Georgia Tech
Presidential Fellowship, an award allocated to the top 5% of each doctoral class for all four years
of her doctoral studies and was also a Molecular Biophysics and Biotechnology fellow for three
years.

Lanier has been honored with several awards, including being selected as one of Georgia Southern
University's Top 40 Under 40 in 2018 and named as part of Georgia Tech's inaugural 40 Under 40
class in 2020. Her pioneering work in STEM education is a testament to her unwavering dedication
to motivating the next generation of scientists and engineers.

Education
• Ph.D. Biophysical Chemistry/Molecular Biophysics - 2017, Georgia Tech
• MBA Finance -2024, The University of Alabama at Birmingham
• B.S. Chemistry -2012, Georgia Southern University