“Forestry has always been central to our family,” explains Kate Seader, a graduate student in the Warnell School’s forestry program. As she grew-up, Kate’s father worked as a forester for Continental Can, Inc. in rural Georgia, which was bought and sold several times resulting in his eventual employment as a forester with International Paper. Because of her father’s involvement in forestry, Kate was naturally drawn to studying natural resources as she entered The University of Georgia as a freshman. Soon after classes began, however, she started suffering symptoms from neurofibromatosis (NF) type II, a rare nerve disease Kate was diagnosed with three years earlier that afflicts roughly one in every 40,000 people.

Fighting this disease resulted in several surgeries over the next two years that left Kate without any ability to hear. “I knew I was likely to lose my hearing as a result of the treatment plan for this disease,” Kate admitted, “But you can never be fully prepared for such a life change.” Kate never left school throughout the treatment schedule. Instead, she scheduled her surgeries around class times and semester breaks.

Kate’s thirteen year fight with this disease has been well documented over the past several weeks in the Athens Banner-Herald and the Red and Black student newspaper as her mother, Teri, and she raised money for the Children’s Tumor Foundation, and awareness about this rare disease, by running in the ING Georgia Half Marathon in March. She greatly appreciated the publicity as a way to assist her fundraising efforts and help raise awareness of this rare illness, as well as issues related to late-onset deafness. She hopes that education of the public will break the stigmas associated with disability and hearing loss. “I do not believe that I am impaired,” Kate explains. “It is a matter of finding a way to work with what you have.”

Kate found it difficult returning to UGA after time off to recover from her surgeries. “The class sizes were too big and it was frustrating tying to communicate,” she explains. So, Kate decided to enroll in the National Student Exchange Program allowing her to study for a year at Western Carolina University, a much smaller and quieter school with a reputable natural resources program.

She enjoyed the program so much that she decided to make the formal transfer and eventually earned a Bachelor’s degree in Natural Resource Management, with a concentration in water resources. It was the diversity of the WCU program that truly opened Kate’s eyes to the wide range of areas within the natural resources field on which she could focus her research. “Growing up, I knew forestry as pine tree stands and paper, and jobs in the timber industry did not appeal to me as much as other aspects of forestry did,” she said.

While at WCU, Kate began work at the USDA Forest Service’s Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in Western North Carolina that also included Warnell School faculty members Bob Tesky and Ron Hendrick. During this period, Kate was able to learn more about the integration of land, policy and science, which has presented new paths of enjoyment and engagement for her. “My original interests from when I came here have not changed,” she explains. “They’ve just broadened.”

After achieving her bachelor’s degree at WCU, Ron Hendrick convinced her to come back to UGA and earn a Master’s degree from the Warnell School. She now has several years of experience as a research technician, which helps pay for graduate school, and is truly excited about what the future holds for her boyfriend and her. “The MFR (Masters of Forest Resources) program has helped me gain job skills beyond just research.” Once a laboratory recluse, Kate now proposes ideas like providing natural resource education programs in schools for deaf students, or finding work with the Extension Service, a state Department of Natural Resources, or the USDA Forest Service where her boyfriend (MS graduate of the Warnell School) is already employed.

According to philosopher Voltaire, “Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them.  The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.” Kate Seader is determined not to dwell on her misfortune. She is improving her ability to use sign language, and read lips, which relieves the frustration of communication barriers. She strongly believes that her determination, combined with her Warnell School degree, will surpass any other barriers that might get between her and her life’s goals.


To date Kate has raised more than $17,000 for the Children’s Tumor Foundation. If you wish to help Kate with this public service effort, visit her website at: www.active.com/donate/nfgeorgia2007/teamkate.