Katrina Lohan is a MarineGEO Postdoctoral Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution and is co-advised by Dr. Gregory Ruiz at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and Dr. Robert Fleischer at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute at the National Zoological Park. Her current research involves using genetic tools to examine diversity, host specificity, and distribution of oyster parasites in various locations throughout the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean waters.

Katrina's work has brought her to Southampton College of Long Island University where she majored in Marine Science. While there, Katrina became particularly fascinated with the use of genetic tools to be able to study marine organisms and wanted to learn more about these techniques. To do this, she obtained a Master’s degree in Biology from American University. Her Master’s thesis involved the use of genetic tools to examine parasite lineages infecting a small migratory songbird, the common yellowthroat. It was through this work that she became fascinated by parasites and disease ecology. She went on to obtain a PhD in Marine Science from the College of William and Mary. Her PhD research was conducted at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and involved examining the distribution, host specificity, and population genetics of a parasitic dinoflagellate that infects crustaceans, notably the American blue crab.