By: Emily Holmes

Recent Lindenwood graduate Kathleen Varvera has been accepted into the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where she will be pursuing a Masters of Science in the Control of Infectious Diseases this fall. Varvera graduated from Lindenwood in December 2020 with a Bachelor of Science in both Public Health and Biological Sciences. LSHTM is ranked 3rd in the world for public health and 1st in the UK. It is also the UK’s top university for the proportion of academic research with women listed as authors, and 4th in the world for infectious diseases and is Varvera’s dream school.

Right now, Varvera is currently employed by Lindenwood and serves as a COVID-19 Intake Processor. “Basically, I work under the Dean of Students Office and am responsible for investigating all positive cases, members of the university with potential exposures, and initiating isolation or quarantine protocols as necessary.” A majority of what Varvera does involves contact tracing to prevent further contamination, along with educating parents and students on the University guidelines. She also has to coordinate with residential life and food services for those who are in isolation or quarantine to make sure that they are getting what they need. Varvera was hired just a week after graduation.

Varvera transferred to Lindenwood her senior year and added and does not regret it at all. Varvera contributes a lot of her success to three very important women at Lindenwood who helped mentor her while she was studying and finding her passion for her career. “I owe every single ounce of the adult and public health advocate that I have become to three people: Dr. Amy Estlund, Dr. Amanda Harrod, and Dr. Catherine Shoff.” She says that these women made her feel important and like she mattered, especially coming from a school where she was one of 100-200 students in a lecture and felt like “just a number”.

Varvera can not wait to see where this journey takes her. With her passion for the immune system and infectious diseases, policy, epidemiology, and laboratory science, she is excited to see how this program at LSHTM can propel her into a future career or perhaps a future doctoral program. While studying abroad, she hopes to visit as many countries as possible while also learning as much as possible in order to fully immerse herself into the culture across the pond.