Kathy Cox was born in Portland Oregon. The oldest of seven children, she attended elementary school in Vancouver Washington, and high school in Southern California and Pullman Washington. She graduated with a BS in Sociology from the University of San Francisco and joined the Peace Corps where she worked as a nutritionist and health educator in Honduras for two years. After marrying Jerry Cox she earned a Masters in Public Health from UC Berkeley. She worked for the San Francisco Department of Public Health as the Coordinator of Refugee Health Services and as the Director of the Speakers Bureau before moving to Anderson Valley.
She and Jerry ran the Floodgate Store and Café in Navarro for five years and Kathy concurrently worked at the Anderson Valley Health Center as the Health Educator for eight years. She earned her teaching credential from Dominican San Rafael and began teaching Spanish and ESL in Anderson Valley in 1991. After teaching for three years at AVHS she and her family moved to Hong Kong where she taught Spanish at the Hong Kong International School for four years. Mrs. Cox has traveled to China, India, The Philippines, Viet Nam, Thailand, Europe, Chile, Peru, Argentina, Mexico and all of the countries of Central America. Kathy returned to AVHS in 1998. She has two grown daughters, Rebekah and Mary Anne, and two grandsons with whom she loves to spend time. She also loves to read, swim, cook, eat, walk and talk with her friends and speak Spanish.