Undergrad Institution: Rice University
Master's Institution: Old Dominion University
Pronouns: she/her

Katie Garcia is a third-year Human Factors and Human-Computer Interaction Doctoral Student at Rice University. She received her bachelor’s in psychology and cognitive sciences at Rice University in 2020 and her master’s in psychology at Old Dominion University in 2022. She is the Social Chair for the Psychological Sciences Graduate Student Association (PsycGSA) and the Programming Director for Rice’s Graduate Student Association (GSA). She received the Graduate Fellowship for STEM Diversity, and Division 21’s Robert W. Proctor Best Student Poster Award at the APA 2024 annual convention.

At Rice as an undergraduate, she majored in Psychology and Cognitive Sciences and minored in Neuroscience and Engineering Design. She received the Distinction in Research and Creative Work for her honors thesis on the topic of trust and presence in an autonomous vehicle simulator. She was a member of Baker College (Hell Yeah!), the first of the 11 residential colleges on campus. At ODU, she was the secretary of the ODU Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (ODU HFES) Student Chapter during her first year, and president during her second year. During her tenure as president, ODU HFES received the Gold Award. She also oversaw and mentored students during both summers of her first and second years for the Transportation Research Undergraduate Experience (REU) as the Graduate Coordinator and Graduate Student Mentor. During her second year, she was a finalist in ODU’s 3MT competition, where she presented her thesis in 3 minutes. She also received Division 21’s Honorable Mention Student Poster at the APA 2022 annual convention.

Now back at Rice, Katie is the HAC Lab manager. In her first year, she was awarded the Social Sciences Research Institute Graduate Student Conference Travel Grant, WiCyS 2023 Volunteer Scholarship, and was a finalist in APA 2023’s PS-in-3. In her second year, she was the president of the Rice Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (Rice HFES) Student Chapter and the Social Chair of the PsycGSA. Under her leadership, Rice HFES received the Gold Award. She was also a Graduate Student Mentor for Rice Psychological Sciences REU. Additionally, she received the STaR@Rice Scholarship, the Ken Kennedy Institute 2023/24 Shell Graduate Fellowship, the WiCyS 2024 Volunteer Scholarship, accepted nomination for the Michigan Institute for Data Science Future Leaders Summit 2024, and the Department of Psychological Sciences Graduate Student Award for Excellence in Research. Katie’s research interests include driving automation, flooding, decision-making, cybersecurity, and Artificial Intelligence (AI). In her free time, she fosters kittens through the Houston Human Society (as she did in Virginia), crafts, and reads good books.

Fun Fact:

I volunteer at the Houston Humane Society by fostering cats/kittens.

Favorite thing about Rice:

I enjoy the tight community and extensive groups, activities, and resources it has available to students.

Favorite thing about Houston:

The diversity of food options and the abundance of activities.

Why did you decide to go to grad school?

I wanted to have all the resources I needed to succeed in whatever career I wanted, and a doctoral program was the next step in furthering my education.