Kristin Burst­edt is Bet­ter­Grads’ Strate­gic Part­ner­ships Man­ager. She is also a Research Asso­ciate in the Mol­e­c­u­lar Biol­ogy group at Five Prime Ther­a­peu­tics, Inc., a com­pany ded­i­cated to the research and devel­op­ment of pro­tein ther­a­peu­tics for the treat­ment of dis­eases like pul­monary fibro­sis and pan­cre­atic can­cer. In 2008, Kristin grad­u­ated cum laude from Saint Mary’s Col­lege of Cal­i­for­nia with a Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Biol­ogy. She is cur­rently in the process of apply­ing to med­ical school to com­plete a MD/MPH or DO/MPH com­bined degree.

While at Saint Mary’s Col­lege, Kristin acted as a men­tor for inner-city chil­dren vis­it­ing the col­lege for the annual Car­ni­val and the annual Hal­loween party. Dur­ing the sum­mer of 2007, she worked for the Liv­er­more Park Dis­trict as a Teacher’s Aide for Extended Stu­dent Ser­vices at Por­tola Ele­men­tary School. Her pas­sion for learn­ing and per­sonal growth has dri­ven her to serve as a men­tor and tutor for numer­ous chil­dren with the goal of help­ing them real­ize their full poten­tial. In Jan­u­ary of 2008, Kristin com­pleted an intern­ship at Saint Anthony’s Foun­da­tion Free Health Clinic in which she stud­ied and com­piled health aware­ness pro­mo­tion mate­ri­als to be dis­trib­uted to those in the Ten­der­loin com­mu­nity of San Fran­cisco. Through this expe­ri­ence, Kristin devel­oped an inter­est in pub­lic aware­ness and health.