Short Bio

Kat Shiffler is a landscape architect with the National Park Service's Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program (RTCA). In that role, she provides technical assistance to small towns, community groups, local governments, and Native Nations to successfully plan and design parks, long-distance trails, campuses, commemorative sites, bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, and natural areas across the Great Plains. 

A former Peace Corps Volunteer and Fulbright Scholar, she has lived, worked, and conducted research in settings as varied as Greenland, Bhutan, Norway, Chile, and Nicaragua — experiences that shape her participatory and place-based approach to site analysis, project creation, and design facilitation. Based once again in her hometown of Lincoln, she and her partner have a micro-flower farm on the Great American Rail Trail.

Research Interests

Long-distance trail typologies, corridor ecology, commemorative landscapes, therapeutic design, public practice

Selected Publications

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

• Dunn, A., Shiffler, K., & Binte Azad, S. (2026). Trails as linear ecologies: A case study of two rail-trail corridors in the U.S. Corn Belt region. Land, 15, 722.

Peer-Reviewed Conference Papers

• Dunn, A., Shiffler, K., & Binte Azad, S. (2025). From Right-of-Way to Greenway: Parameters for the ecological function of Midwestern rail-trail corridors. In Proceedings of the Fábos Conference on Landscape and Greenway Planning, Amherst, MA.
• Azad, S. B., Dunn, A., & Shiffler, K. (2025). Hypernature for Iowa's Rail-Trail Corridors: A typology of enhancements for linear infrastructure in the Corn Belt. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Ecology and Transportation, Denver, CO.
• Lewis, E., Badenhope, J., & Shiffler, K. (2023). Equitable transportation design with small communities. In Proceedings of the American Society of Landscape Architecture National Conference, Minneapolis, MN.

Book Contributions

• Shiffler, K., Nieland, K., & Edwards, R. (2015). Roaming the Plains: Eight Great Ecotourism Opportunities in Nebraska. Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
• Shiffler, K., Tylander, E., & Sheets, L. (2008). Food Gardens. In E. Kirby & E. Peters (Eds.), Brooklyn Botanical Garden All-Region Guide: Community Gardening (pp. 18–34). Brooklyn Botanical Garden.