[4] In 1915 she was working as a laboratory assistant in the natural science department at Michigan State Normal and June 1916 is listed as her expected graduation date.
[6] Her interest in mycology was evident even in her undergraduate career; in 1920 she presented at the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Chicago on "The Life History in Culture of a Homothallic Endogone".
She accompanied Kauffman on several collecting expeditions, including trips to Medicine Bow National Forest in 1923 and to Michigan's Upper Peninsula in the summer of 1927.
Kanouse's first substantial contribution to mycology was "A Monographic Study of Special Groups of the Water Molds", published in two parts in the American Journal of Botany (June and July 1927), covering the families Blastocladiaceae, Leptomitaceae, and Pythiomorphaceae.
Kanouse is credited with describing the following: Orders: Leptomitales Genera: Acervus, Gelatinodiscus, Leucovibrissea, Modicella, Pseudociboria Species: Acervus aurantiacus, Blastocladia gracilis, Blastocladia globosa, Blastocladia tenuis, Cenangium tennesseense, Chlorociboria aeruginascens, Gelatinodiscus flavidus, Humaria stellata, Lachnum palmae, Lambertella belisensis, Leucovibrissea obconica, Pseudociboria umbrina, Psilachnum cassandrae, Psilachnum miniatum, Trichophaea michiganensis, Tryblidaria washingtonensis[14] A genus in Saccardiaceae was named "Kanousea" in 1962 by Augusto Chaves Batista and Raffaele Ciferri in her honor,[15] but the species included have been removed to Johansonia and Microcallis.