Kathy Raffel began her career as a medical social worker and as a health educator, designing community-based health promotion and prevention programs.  In 1987, she earned an MBA at the University of San Francisco.  Between 1997 and 2007, Kathy worked as a patient education specialist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN where she created educational materials, led staff development efforts, conducted research on health education, and undertook a number of quality improvement initiatives. In 2008, Kathy earned a graduate certificate in alternative dispute resolution from Capital Law School in Columbus, Ohio; her emphasis was on addressing conflict in health care particularly among members of interdisciplinary teams.  She earned her PhD in social work in 2013. Kathy is currently serving as the Director of the MS in Behavioral Health, an interdisciplinary program in the School of Nursing and Health Professions at the University of San Francisco.