Kathryn Stam is a professor of anthropology at SUNY Polytechnic Institute. She serves as the coordinator of the online master’s program in information design and technology, and she teaches undergraduate anthropology. Stam’s specialties are cross-cultural communication, ethnography, Thai and Lao studies, and information technology. Her recent work is a collection and analysis of Northeast Thai memorial books and has been supported by a Fulbright grant and an ENITAS scholarship from the Institute of Thai Studies at Chulalongkorn University.

As an advisor for the student group “American and Refugee Students for Closer Connection,” Stam helps to organize activities for new refugees and local students to share their cultures and to ease the transition to American life for new arrivals. Stam is a member of the Midtown Utica Community Center Board of Directors and serves as a volunteer Thai/Lao interpreter. Her most recent project is Refugees Starting Over in Utica, New York, a SUNY Poly-based collaborative project that brings students and community members together through events, exhibits, film, social media, field trips, and volunteer work.