Kat Gardner-Vandy, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Oklahoma State University
Kat Gardner-Vandy (citizen of Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma) is an Assistant Professor of Aviation and Space in the School of Educational Foundations, Leadership and Aviation. She is a geologist, planetary scientist, and private pilot. Dr. Gardner-Vandy is the Principal Investigator of the Native Earth | Native Sky program and the President-Elect of the OSU Native American Faculty and Staff Association. She was named a Native American 40 Under 40 by the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development in 2022. Her research interests include STEM curriculum development with Native American nations, student pilot training, pilot weather data collection, meteoritics, cosmochemistry, and experimental petrology.
Blog Posts
The Hunter and the Alligator: How Choctaw Stories Help Students Flourish in STEM | June 12, 2025
