November Seminar - Kathryn Leach

November Seminar - Dr. Kathryn (Katie) Leach

Career Consultant & Career Pathway Workshop Facilitator, American Chemical Society

Digital Faculty Consultant, McGraw-Hill Higher Education

Adjunct Assistant Professor, Valparaiso University

  Tuesday, November 18, 2025

6:30 - 7:30 pm

via Zoom

Zoom meeting link will be sent to registered participants by email.

Seminar Flyer

Event Poster

LinkedIn for Chemists: Networking Made Easier

LinkedIn contains a wealth of easily accessible information that used to be time consuming for job seekers to discover. LinkedIn profiles are a powerful tool to help job seekers network to form connections, to learn about career opportunities, and to collect information about potential employers.  In this presentation, I will walk through the sections of a LinkedIn profile and offer best practices for creating and optimizing your own.  Finally, I will share strategies to use LinkedIn to attract new career opportunities in the chemical sciences.

Biography:  Katie graduated from the University of Rochester with her Ph.D. in physical chemistry, where she worked on nanotechnology projects using carbon nanotubes and semiconducting quantum dots. She relocated outside of Chicago to work as a Research Scientist for a small environmental lab that performed government contract work to develop printable carbon nanotube sensors to detect trace amounts of warfare agents. Katie also worked as a Lecturer at Valparaiso University, where she primarily taught non-majors (nursing and engineering) and general chemistry students, oftentimes using exciting (and sometimes tasty) demos. She currently serves as a Digital Faculty Consultant for McGraw-Hill and is back in the classroom as a culinary student! She's using chemistry to improve her own treats (French macarons, sourdough bread, and chocolate confections) and to teach students at Valparaiso University about the “Chemistry of Baking” (her dream job). In her free time, Katie enjoys volunteering as an ACS Career Consultant, traveling, and spending time with her husband, twin boys, and three golden retrievers. She finally admits to being a runner and is trying to run a foot race in all 50 states.