Kate McDonnell-Dowling obtained a Bachelor's Degree in Physiology and Master's Degree in Neuropharmacology from the National University of Ireland, Galway. Following this, she earned her PhD in Pharmacology at the National University of Ireland, Galway and was then awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to complete a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Tufts University, Boston. Subsequently, Dr. McDonnell-Dowling was awarded the Young Investigator Award from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation to carry out research at Beth Israel Deaconess, Boston. Dr. McDonnell-Dowling's research includes basic biomedical laboratory research and to date has focused on the consequences of stress and illicit drug use during pregnancy and lactation. Dr. McDonnell-Dowling then joined HMX as the Pharmacology Curriculum Lead at Harvard Medical School. At HMX, she has developed several new courses on foundational and advanced pharmacology topics, such as Drug Discovery and Development and Clinical Drug development. She has since held a number of roles at HMX including Associate Director of Curriculum and most recently Director of Product Management and Curriculum Development.