Kara was a graduate student in the Field of Plant Pathology. In 2008, she earned her M.S. degree. Kara's thesis was devoted to "Comparison of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi spore diversity and abundance between flowering and nonflowering Ammophila breviligulata."

During her tenure in the lab, Kara inspired us to study bacterial endosymbionts of Glomeromycota.