Cassandra M. Barrett is a PhD candidate in the biological design program at the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering at Arizona State Univ. (Email: cmbarre6@asu.edu; Address: 501 E Tyler Mall, Box 9709, Tempe, AZ, 85003). She earned her bachelor’s degree in microbiology at the Univ. of Minnesota Twin Cities, with an emphasis on industrial and applied microbiology. Under the mentorship of Dr. Karmella Haynes, Barrett is investigating how CRISPR-Cas9 systems interact with the nuclear environment of human cells and is developing tools to improve editing in this context. Barrett is the president of the Engineering Biology Research Consortium (EBRC) Student and Postdoc Association, cofounder of the Arizona Science Policy Network, and a recipient of the ASU Fulton Schools of Engineering Dean’s Fellowship.