Dr. Kate Teffer is a skilled life sciences consultant with over a decade of experience supporting ARPA-H, NIH, and the DoD with scientific landscape analysis, evidence synthesis, strategic planning, and science communications. Her academic training was in neuroscience and evolutionary biology, and she holds a Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology from the University of California, San Diego, where her research focused on the evolution and structural organization of the human prefrontal cortex. At EverGlade, she leverages her scientific expertise and deep insider knowledge of federal R&D funding processes to advise clients across scientific writing, proposal development, and program execution.
Before joining EverGlade, Dr. Teffer spent 2.5 years embedded at ARPA-H as a Science and Engineering Technical Advisor (SETA) supporting the Health Science Futures Mission Office during the agency’s launch, first through Booz Allen Hamilton and subsequently through ECS Federal. In this role, she produced the complete suite of scientific documentation for every project funded in the agency’s first year, developing deep firsthand knowledge of how ARPA-H evaluates scientific concepts and defines program success. She served as the Mission Office’s primary science writer, producing Congressional briefings, HHS Secretary communications, and public-facing program descriptions across a portfolio spanning precision genetic medicine, gene therapy, rare disease diagnostics, intraoperative tumor imaging, advanced radiotherapy, and neuroscience.
Prior to ARPA-H, Dr. Teffer spent a decade at Booz Allen Hamilton, delivering scientific advisory and writing services to federal biomedical research agencies, including the NIH, DoD and VA. Her engagements included conducting a global landscape analysis of vaccine and antiviral development pipelines for NIH/NIAID’s pandemic preparedness portfolio, providing clinical research advisory support for a VA pain management program, and producing systematic evidence reviews for DoD behavioral health and TBI programs.
Dr. Teffer is a published researcher with four peer-reviewed publications in high-impact neuroscience journals, including Cerebral Cortex and the Journal of Comparative Neurology.