Kathryn (Kay) Orzech, PhD

Kay Orzech is the Program Coordinator for Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP). She grew up in the Washington, DC suburbs and came to Tucson, Arizona in 2001 for graduate school. After graduating in 2010 with a PhD, short-term research jobs took her to Providence, Rhode Island, and then Dundee, Scotland, over the next five years.  She returned, with her family, to Tucson in 2015, and worked as a program evaluator for the SNAP-Ed program (the education arm of SNAP, formerly called Food Stamps) in Arizona until 2023. When not at work, she likes to explore new places, sing with the Faculty/Staff Choir at the university, and read cozy mystery novels.

Kay earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the College of William and Mary and a MA and PhD in biocultural and medical anthropology at the University of Arizona. She completed postdoctoral training at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island (in Sleep Science) and the University of Dundee in Dundee, Scotland (working on a project, Charting the Digital Lifespan, exploring digital technology use across the lifespan in the U.K). Working with VIP allows her to connect undergraduate students with research opportunities that will provide hands-on learning in fun team research environments at UArizona.