Kathleen S. Wilson

Kathleen S. Wilson, MD, is a Professor in the Department of Pathology and member of the McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. She is board-certified in Clinical Pathology and Clinical Cytogenetics and serves as Director of the Cytogenomic Microarray Analysis (CMA) laboratory, which she founded in 2008 as the first clinical CMA service in North Texas.

Dr. Wilson obtained her undergraduate degree with honors from Amherst College (1986) and her MD from UT Southwestern (1991), followed by residency in Pathology and fellowship in Genetics, both at UT Southwestern.

Her research integrates high-resolution genomic technologies with clinical diagnostics, focusing on chromosomal abnormalities in pediatric leukemias and solid tumors, constitutional genomic disorders, and the policy framework governing reimbursement for complex genetic tests. She has contributed to national proficiency-testing guidelines for cytogenomic microarray analysis and served on key policy committees of the College of American Pathologists and the American College of Medical Genetics.

Across more than two decades her publications trace the evolution of cytogenomics: early works defined recurrent chromosomal alterations in uncommon lymphomas and leukemias, while recent studies exploit array-CGH to uncover cryptic driver lesions in embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma and to characterize dramatic chromothripsis events in pediatric AML. A parallel line of investigation explores the clinical impact of copy-number variants in neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism and PTEN-related cancer predisposition syndromes.

Dr. Wilson has received teaching awards for her sustained commitment to medical and graduate education. She currently chairs the UT Southwestern Medical School Admissions Committee and co-directs the Medical Student Genetics Course, roles that complement her active mentorship of residents, fellows, and junior faculty.

She maintains professional leadership positions including fellowship in the College of American Pathologists and the American College of Medical Genetics, and she continues to shape national laboratory standards through committee service and policy development.