I support mission-driven leaders and teams navigating the complexity of culture change in their community, organization, or institution.Kate O’Brien is founder and principal of Catalyst Collaboratives, a small consultancy focused on helping clients co-create, navigate, and manage change rooted in equity and anti-oppression, and in pursuit of belonging, justice, and collective liberation. Kate approaches her work drawing on the nationwide network of collaborators, partners, and practitioners she cultivated over two decades while working to strengthen the capacity of nonprofits, grassroots groups, and municipalities in environmental justice communities across the US. Through Catalyst Collaboratives, Kate supports her clients by building and leading purposeful teams that provide collegial, culturally and emotionally competent support through each step of the journey to create something new. Whether a brownfield redevelopment project, a community-driven planning process, an organizational culture change initiative, or a community of practice, her work centers relationships and shared humanity.Kate was trained as a social worker, urban planner, and policy analyst. She began her career as a case manager for people with serious and persistent mental illness, where she supported clients navigating under-resourced behavioral health systems while working toward wellness. She then moved into the environmental community development field while pursuing graduate studies in urban and environmental policy and planning. Frequently she assumed a generalist role while managing teams of practitioners (engineers, planners, organizers, attorneys, public health practitioners) and everyday people to co-create vision plans for multi-year, multi-generational, transformational work in their community. As a white cis-het woman working alongside colleagues and communities of colors and cultures, Kate has spent over twenty years building bridges across difference, nurturing authentic relationships, and reflecting deeply on the ways power, privilege, and identity intersect and influence systems, interactions, and outcomes. Kate relates these experiences and perspectives to her clients, encouraging them to do their own deep work, and leveraging the synergy created when human beings come together to connect, co-create, and be in communities of care and belonging.Kate is based in Portland, Maine.