In 1981, after teaching high school and completing a master’s degree in physiology, Kathy Hill took advice from a mentor and got a job as a Research Technician at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Dallas (today UT Southwestern).

The guidance paid off, and she’s been with what is now the Charles and Jane Pak Center for Mineral Metabolism and Clinical Research for decades. The Center, founded by Professor of Internal Medicine Charles Pak, M.D., focuses on calcium, phosphates, magnesium, and other biologically important minerals.

The lab Ms. Hill manages as a Research Scientist conducts a combination of basic and clinical research and diagnostic clinical services, generally involving patients being treated by urologists and nephrologists for kidney stones and osteoporosis. This effort includes both human and animal research subjects.

“The work I do not only helps physicians treat their patients, but also – through clinical and basic research – we increase our knowledge of disease processes and move toward new treatments to improve outcomes for our patients,” she says.

Some of her most satisfying work was with Dr. Pak, who developed Citracal, which is now widely prescribed to prevent osteoporosis. Ms. Hill also worked with him on several “orphan drugs,” treatment for diseases so rare that they’re often overlooked in pharmaceutical research.

“These are things that patients are taking now, and they’re helping,” she said. “I like that!”

Ms. Hill took a few years off work from UTSW when her children were young, teaching part time at a junior college.

For fun, she quilts and relaxes at a family property in East Texas. “We have a deer feeder and watch the animals – it’s just a place to get away from the city,” she says.