Katherine B. Gettings began working in the field of human identity testing in 1998, and obtained her M.S. in Criminal Justice, specializing in Forensic Science from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2001. She trained and worked in the Forensic Biology and DNA Casework section of the Virginia Department of Forensic Science, and later became the Technical Leader of Forensic Operations at Bode Technology. Katherine has testified in numerous criminal cases, she has taught forensic science courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and she has served as a forensic laboratory auditor/assessor with NFSTC and ASCLD/LAB-International. Katherine earned her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the George Washington University in 2013, and then began her work with the Applied Genetics group at NIST. Katherine's background serves as a useful foundation as she leads the Applied Genetics group's efforts to develop next-generation sequencing infrastructure for the forensic community.