Katherine Wilson  was born in Klamath Falls, Oregon to school teachers who lived and taught on the Chiloquin Indian Reservation. Her father was childhood friends with Director James Ivory. She attended the University of Oregon as an English Major, and soon became an actress for the burgeoning 16mm Poetic Cinema filmmakers that included members of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters. Concurrently, she was discovered by Director Mark Rydell for his film Cinderella Liberty.  Mark brought her to Hollywood and encouraged her to attend film school at the University of California. However, she wanted to continue as a filmmaker in Oregon, and has worked ever since to create a film industry in the Northwest tradition. It was in lobbying the Governor's office for the indigenous filmmaker that Katherine was chosen as the Governor's liaison to the set of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" wherein she became fast friends with Jack Nicholson and Michael Douglas.  Her first major film as location scout and location casting director was for the notorious "Animal House." She provided these services for the next 40 years on many films, including Stand by Me; but with her literary background she felt she could better serve her community by developing and creating screenplays that were made to be filmed in the Northwest. As an early Oregon Film Pioneer (Oregon’s first professional Location Scout , Set Designer and Casting Director) and for films who needed crew, she mentored over 100 young people into careers in film. Some of them are still known here in Oregon, like Mark Axton, but most of them went to Los Angeles, like actor Ernie Garrett, and 1st AD Kory Pollard. But it was one of her ‘pillow fight girls’ Kim Plant, who went on to become VP of Brand Synergy at Walt Disney Productions. Since then, she wrote and produced Animal House of Blues: How a Community Helped Create a Hollywood Blockbuster or Two.  Knowing that in the new digital world, the catch-22 of not getting hired unless you had a credit on ImdbPro and not getting a credit unless you had been hired, she mentored 10 graduating students from 5 graduating classes of the University of Oregon's Cinematic Studies department. She took these young filmmakers all the way from screenplay to film festival and distribution. They won "Best Documentary by a Northwest Filmmaker" at the Eugene International Film Festival in 2012, and again in 2016 with ‘Best Remake’. When 'Animal House' Alumni heard about it, some returned to Eugene to help her to re-edit, re-score and re-shoot it for a new edition: "Animal House of Blues 33.3 Edition". This version was shown on OPB, and was recently submitteded for a 2020 Grammy. In 2017, in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Oregon Film Office, she completed her memoirs called 'Echoes from the Set: 50 years of Filming on Location: Hollywood & Oregon's Cinematic Literary Voices.'  Katherine and her husband Philip Krysl have worked on over 50 Major Motion Pictures since 1969, all in the Greater Northwest.  The book documents in photographs, memorabilia and quotes 50 years of the Oregon Film Office, Oregon Films, Oregon Filmmakers and Film Crew, as well as the beginnings of OMPA; but most importantly dares to define the Oregon Poetic Cinema Literary Voice that emerged in on-location films like '5 Easy Pieces', 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest', 'Sometimes a Great Notion,' 'Even Cowgirls Get the Blues', 'Wendy & Lucy' and 'Meeks Cut-off'. She was recently named to the Board of Directors of The Wisdom of Elderberry Farms, which is working with the oldest continuous American Indian Residential School in the Nation @Chemawa- near Salem, Oregon- as an advisor for Trauma-based Healing through Documentary Filmmaking, while continuing to mentor young filmmakers at the University of Oregon.  She is a member of the U of O Longhouse and Indigenous Womxn's Wellness Group, and a Citizen of the Wallowa Band of the Nez Perce- named by Etta Conner as Red-tail Hawk- and taught the Sahaptin language's version of her name- K'iya- by Atwice Kamiakun.