Inspiring grads: Kate Rahbari

Four years as an undergraduate. Two years as a National Institutes of Health research fellow. Eight years as a student in UIC’s combined MD-PhD program at the College of Medicine. Altogether, that’s more than a decade of study and research, and hundreds of hours helping patients during clinical rotations.

For 2023 graduate Kate Rahbari, another of her most significant accomplishments of the past 14 years — along with her multiple degrees and legacy of research — is learning to let go of self-doubt and trusting her instincts.

It was a university program aimed at helping underrepresented undergraduate students engage in STEM fields that started to change things for Rahbari, who grew up in Pennsylvania and whose dad is Iranian and whose mom is a member of the Haliwa-Saponi Tribe of North Carolina.

• Read more about Kate on UIC today