Katherine Whittaker Ferrara (S’82–M’87–SM’99) received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering in 1982 and 1983, respectively, from the California State University, Sacramento, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering and computer science in 1989 from the University of California, Davis.

From 1983 to 1988, she worked for Sound Imaging, Inc., Folsom, CA, and for General Electric Medical Systems, Rancho Cordova, CA, in the areas of magnetic resonance and ultrasound imaging. From 1989–1993, she was an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at California State University, Sacramento. From 1993–1995, she was a principal member of the research staff at the Riverside Research Institute, New York, NY. From 1995–1999, she was an associate professor at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA.

She is currently a Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Davis, having served as the founding chair of the department from 1999 to 2004. She served as a regular member of the Diagnostic Radiology Study Section (2000–2004), is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, and serves on the Editorial Board of Annual Reviews in Biomedical Engineering.