Kavita Marfatia Berger is a Project Director at the Center for Science, Technology and Security Policy. Her area of expertise is in biosecurity, global health, and public health preparedness and response.

She received her BS in molecular genetics from The Ohio State University. There, she worked on project related to osteoporosis and cancer for her undergraduate Honors thesis.

Kavita obtained her Ph.D. in molecular genetics and molecular biology at Emory University. Her dissertation focused on mRNA export and nuclear transport. In pursuit of her degree, she performed techniques in cell biology, genetics, molecular biology, and biochemistry. She presented her work at several international conferences, including the American Society for Cell Biology Conferences, program project grant meetings, and Southeastern Regional Yeast Meetings.

Following graduate school, she changed the focus of her research and did her post-doctoral work on HIV microbicides, HIV and smallpox vaccines, and immunological characterization of the human cervix. She learned many virologic and immunologic techniques for describing and analyzing drug and vaccine design and efficacy. Her work was presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Infectious Diseases and AIDSVaccine05. Throughout her academic career, she instructed several undergraduate students in the lab and published several manuscripts.