Kathleen McAuliffe is the author most recently of the book This Is Your Brain On Parasites: How Tiny Creatures Manipulate Our Behavior and Shape Society (Houghton Mifflin), a bestseller in parasitology and microbiology that has been translated into six languages. Over the decades, she has written articles—many featured on covers—for over a dozen national magazines, including Discover, The New York Times (both the Sunday Magazine and newspaper), The Atlantic, US News & World Report, Smithsonian, and the Los Angeles Times. Earlier in her career, she was a health columnist for More Magazine, and a senior science editor at US News & World Report and Omni Magazine.

In addition to writing, McAuliffe is an adjunct professor at the University of Miami where she is currently teaching a course on the human microbiome.

McAuliffe was educated at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, obtaining an M.A. in natural science after graduating with first-class honors (highest distinction). Her final year thesis on electroencephalography (EEG) recordings of the human brain was presented at the Eastern Psychology Association Conference in 1977.

McAuliffe resides in Miami, Florida with her husband, a physicist at the University of Miami.