Katie grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States, the youngest of 5 kids and obtained her Nursing degree from the University of Michigan. Following graduation she spent 10 years working in Pediatric Intensive Care in Texas and Virginia. She then married an Australian and relocated to Australia, continuing her career in nursing looking after critically ill children and special needs babies before taking a break to start a family. Katie and her husband now have two lovely young daughters, and Katie has moved into the world of writing children's books - with a special focus on books for girls, hoping to create books that provide strong role models for kids in general - but in particular for girls.So far Katie has written 2 books - "Smiley Riley and the New Neighbor" and "Smiley Riley and the Mystery of the Lucky Bracelet" - and is currently in the process of writing her third and fourth (yet to be named) titles in the Smiley Riley Adventure Series. The series is the story about Smiley Riley, her lucky bracelet, her friends, her family and the many adventures that she gets upto.The inspiration for Katie’s Smiley Riley Adventure Series books is her eldest daughter Riley - who she saw naturally develop into such a positive role model for her friends and those around her. It was through watching her daughter that she realized how important strong, positive, courageous, role models are for children - and especially for girls.In addition to working on the 3rd and 4th books in the Smiley Riley Adventure Series, Katie is spending quite a bit of time promoting the books and working with her illustrator to create illustrations for use on the Smiley Riley website, social media and for other promotions.