Kathryn Wilkens-Christopher received her Ph.D. in finance at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1998, and received a Center for International Securities and Derivatives Markets (CISDM) fellowship in 1997. She was on CAIAA's advisory board from the program's inception in 2002 through 2005.

Prior to her full time involvement with CAIA, she was an assistant professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and was awarded the 2002-2004 Teaching Technology Fellowship, which emphasized pedagogical issues in distance learning programs. She has published several journal articles and is now a CISDM Research Associate. Recently she has published chapters in Intelligent Commodity Investing (2007), Hedge Funds and Managed Futures (2006), Funds of Hedge Funds (2006), Hedge Funds: Insights in Performance Measurement: Risk Analysis, and Portfolio Allocation (2005),  Commodity Trading Advisors: Risk, Performance Analysis and Selection (2004), and Hedge Funds: Strategies, Risk Assessment, and Returns (2003).

Dr. Wilkens-Christopher works with CAIA's membership, Advisory Board, Curriculum and Exam Committees, and Curriculum Subcommittees to develop the curriculum based on their expert collective knowledge of alternative investments. She is ultimately responsible for selecting the required readings and outlining the learning objectives of the program.

Dr. Wilkens-Christopher lives in Amherst, MA and when not working on the CAIA curriculum can be found at the nearest ice rink, keeping her figure skating skills sharp.