J. Kate Bridgeman

Kate joined the Center of Packaging and Unit Load Design in the fall of 2017, filling the position of Dr. Laszlo Horvath’s administrative assistant. She works on organizing short courses, developing marketing tools, maintaining databases, and designing/maintaining websites. She photographs our students, interns, equipment, and testing services; she maintains Dr. Horvath’s calendar and helps to spread the word about the Center.

With Dr. Horvath's recent promotion to the Department of Sustainable Biomaterials Interim Department Head, Kate's responsibilities are changing more towards assisting the entire department with her varied skills instead of only the Center.

Kate has her B.S. from Radford University and has 20 years of accounting, design, and office management experience.

Kate has lived in Christiansburg, Virginia since childhood and has been with her husband, Jason, for 17 years. They live in a big, old, country farmhouse with their best friend, four dogs, four cats, and a managerie of wild critters that are all half-tamed due to Kate handfeeding them for years. Kate spends her free time reading, writing, doing artwork / crafts, and befriending the local wildlife.

Areas of Responsibility:

Administrative support for the SBIO department and the Center, editing and writing services for faculty and students, creating marketing tools/flyers/brochures, maintaining faculty calendars, scheduling meetings/phone calls/events, scheduling continuing education short courses, helping with event facilitation, website creation and maintenance, database entry and management, social media management for the department and Center accounts, and generally helping out via office management, accounting analysis, and overall organizational skills.

To learn more about Kate, read her article from our series One of Us.