About THE AUTHOR

---

 - except with more code and fewer corkscrews

Cat was already knee-deep in HTML and Java when most kids were just figuring out which college to apply to. But instead of taking the straight tech route, she took a hard left into theatre and studio art. Turns out, wrangling actors and set pieces isn’t all that different from debugging code—both involve chaos, creativity, and the occasional meltdown (of either the stage lights or the server).

Born in Texas but mostly raised in Gainesville, FL, Cat's never shied away from an adventure. She’s lived overseas, absolutely fell in love with South America, and still travels whenever she gets the chance. These days, her camera (and her long, ever-expanding bucket list) are her constant companions. From bustling cities to quiet corners of the world, Cat mixes her love of tech with her creative streak—capturing the beauty of landscapes, architecture, and anything that tells a story.

Back in her college days, Cat moonlighted as a flip-phone fixer for Verizon (ironic, considering she’s never been a big fan of cell phones). Fast forward to today, and she’s swapped phone repairs for full-stack development, project management, and DevOps. Whether she’s solving tech puzzles or picking up new programming languages just for fun, Cat brings a mix of curiosity and creativity to everything she does. Need an example? She once taught herself animation just to make wallpaper move for a live adaptation of The Yellow Wallpaper. Yep, she’s that kind of person.

When she’s not in the cybersecurity trenches (starting with UF's HiPerGator supercomputer and loving every chaotic minute), you’ll probably find her improving processes, leading teams, or laughing about how back in the day you had to actually hack your way into HackTheBox. Now, anyone can just sign up. Where’s the challenge in that?