Kathleen Hess graduated from DePaul University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry. She went on to complete her doctorate degree in chemistry at The University of Chicago. After completing post-doctoral research at the University of California, Irvine she worked in industry for short time. She began to teach part-time at community colleges in Southern California and realized her passion resided with teaching. Kathleen taught full-time at Cypress College in Cypress, California in the chemistry department. Her primary teaching load was organic chemistry. She moved to Rhode Island and became a Senior Lecturer in the chemistry department at Brown University. At Brown, her primary teaching responsibilities focused on the undergraduate organic laboratories. She moved back to the Chicagoland area and began her current position in the chemistry department of the College of DuPage. Kathleen teaches primarily organic and biochemistry courses. She has updated all the organic chemistry laboratory curriculum, including developing Open Education resources for the laboratory procedures. Recently, she orchestrated the purchase of a mass spectrometer and a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectrometer with proton and carbon-13 capabilities for the department.