It is a question that began taking shape long before her doctoral work, rooted in her experience growing up in Ghana, where access to infrastructure and basic services can vary widely from one community to the next.

Now a Ph.D. student in geography at UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, Osei studies how cities create “heat islands” and how people experience them. Her work focuses on urban heat exposure, the communities most affected, and how cities can respond in ways that strengthen resilience.

“I grew up in a context where access to infrastructure and basic services can vary significantly,” Osei said. “That stayed with me.”

That early awareness led her to urban planning and, eventually, urban climate research. Today, she uses satellite data, geospatial analysis, and machine learning to map heat patterns at fine spatial scales. The goal is to see cities more clearly. In many smaller cities, detailed heat data does not exist, making it difficult to identify where risk is building.

Osei’s work helps close that gap. Her analysis reveals where high temperatures persist and where exposure is likely to be greatest, including for people whose daily routines keep them outdoors, older residents and those living in areas with limited access to shade or cooling.

Her research is not only about identifying patterns; it also asks what can be done with that knowledge. She studies how urban growth and development shape heat, and how planning decisions can either reduce or intensify exposure over time. In this way, her work connects the physical form of cities to the weather conditions people experience each day.

“I try to move from identifying patterns to making them actionable,” she said.

That focus on application runs throughout her work. Osei is supported by Battele Savannah River Alliance (BSRA) funding from the University of Georgia Applied Research Institute (UGARI), which enables collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River National Laboratory through her adviser, Dr. Marshall Shepherd, and his joint affiliation and ongoing projects. She is also part of the Weather Risk Vertically Integrated Project Research (VIPR) program, where she leads the Urban Systems subgroup and contributes to research supporting planning and resilience efforts for emerging communities, including the Rowen Innovation District in Georgia.

Her work addresses heat risk in communities, advances new ways of thinking about urban growth and planning, and explores how development is broadly connected to weather.

“In assessing risk, Kathy’s work is keenly linked to understanding urban heat exposure, vulnerable sectors of our communities, and resilience,” Shepherd said.

Her research extends beyond large metropolitan areas. Small and mid-sized cities are often growing quickly, with fewer tools to assess climate risk. Osei sees these places as central to the future of urban climate resilience, not peripheral to it.

“The patterns I study are not unique to the United States,” Osei said. “They are just as relevant in rapidly growing cities in Ghana and across Africa.”

That connection to Ghana remains constant. It shapes how she thinks about exposure, infrastructure and what it means for a city to be prepared. She hopes to build on that connection through future collaborations and applied projects.

Looking ahead, Osei aims to continue working at the intersection of climate data and decision-making. Her goal is to make complex information usable for the people shaping cities, so that responses to rising temperatures are grounded in a clear understanding of where and how heat is experienced.

For Osei, the work is both technical and practical. It is about reading the landscape, asking better questions and ensuring that as cities grow, they are better prepared for the conditions ahead.