Katherine Birch is a Brumley NextGen Undergraduate Scholar and senior at The University of Texas at Austin double majoring in international relations and global studies and Russian, East European, and Eurasian studies. On campus, she has contributed to several research initiatives with the Department of Government and the Global (Dis)Information Lab on projects relating to Russian disinformation campaigns; she has also served as president of Students for Central and Eastern Europe, a student organization dedicated to engaging UT Austin students with ongoing social and political rights issues within these regions. Off campus, Birch interned with the Institute of International Relations Prague. After graduation, Birch will spend her summer in Warsaw, Poland, examining contemporary security issues faced by the United States' Central and Eastern European allies and learning about the region's history of democratization at Collegium Civitas. Upon her return, she plans to attend graduate school to focus her advanced studies on cybersecurity policy and the intersection of technology and democracy.