Kate Kvaternik joined the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Volpe Center as the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program Manager in January 2025. She has been involved with the SBIR and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs for twenty years. Prior to joining the U.S. DOT team, Kate was with NASA’s SBIR/STTR program where she served in numerous roles including Mission Directorate Liaison, Operations Lead, and Acquisition Management Unit Lead. These roles allowed her to engage with the technical community and pursue her interests in policy and process improvement. One of those process improvement activities earned her NASA’s Exceptional Public Achievement Medal. Kate holds a B.A. with a major in Biology and a minor in Chemistry from Colgate University.