Kate Birdsall

Kate Birdsall, Ph.D., has had several roles in her time at MSU, beginning in 2009 as a doctoral student. Most recently, she was an associate teaching professor in Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures, where she specialized in user experience and professional writing. In her role as president of UNTF, which she occupied from 2020-23, she served as lead negotiator during the COVID-19 pandemic and during contract negotiations in 2022; she also served as a vice president of AFT Michigan, as a faculty senator for the College of Arts and Letters, and on the most recent presidential search committee.

Kate successfully attained Designation B and promotion in the fixed-term system and hopes to bring that expertise to work with her in FASA. She is committed to communication, creative problem solving, fairness, and equity, and has over 20 years of management (of both people and projects) in her repertoire. She looks forward to collaborating across colleges, unions, and units to help to make MSU a workplace of choice and a national leader in faculty, academic staff, and student success.

Outside of work, Kate enjoys making music—she plays multiple instruments and is a mixing engineer—building guitars and basses, spending time with her family and pets, and watching British mysteries.

Kate Birdsall, Director