Katharine Schassler, a student without Native heritage, is from rural upstate New York. As a senior in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering their academic and personal interests include land ethics and environmental justice. Broadly, Kate is compelled by human interactions with landscapes and how the built environment can create and mitigate harm. For her junior research project Kate worked in collaboration with Dr Tommy Rock in Monument Valley, Utah to study the water quality of several unregulated wells on the Navajo Nation.

Kate is a member of the Indigeneity at Princeton Task Force working to expand Princeton's resources for Native students, center Indigenous studies as an intersectional academic discipline, and create campus dialogue about Native issues.