About
Hi, Friends!
I'd love to share with you why I do this work.
For over 25 years I struggled with chronic loneliness. It was so painful...and terrifying. No matter what I learned in my college textbooks about connection, no matter where I moved to start over, no matter what groups I tried out, I just couldn't figure it out. But then I had an incredible breakthrough when I became a mom sitting day after day in a strip mall Starbucks in LA... (More below!) So if this could be my story, there is hope for literally anyone:)
My major learning and the foundation of my work is that you belong already, and so does everyone else. Belonging is a fact of our personhood and first human right. We are wired to connect meaningfully and message belonging to everyone we meet. In fact, the quality of our relationships is the #1 predictor of our wellbeing across the lifespan. And as a global society in an age of unprecedented loneliness, polarization, anxiety + depression, we must find our way home to each other where we are, as we are.
~Cat
CV
Academic
Professional
Cat is an award-winning innovation fellow who was scholarshipped to study the Human Condition at USC & the University of Edinburgh, graduating summa cum laude with honors in Philosophy for her work on the conditions for community and the transformation of social life through public spaces.
She received fellowships to study engagement of cu
Cat is an award-winning innovation fellow who was scholarshipped to study the Human Condition at USC & the University of Edinburgh, graduating summa cum laude with honors in Philosophy for her work on the conditions for community and the transformation of social life through public spaces.
She received fellowships to study engagement of culture through politics and religion with a political think tank and Yale faculty, respectively.
For nearly ten years she apprenticed to Philosopher and Theologian, the late Dallas Willard (USC), participating in the development of work around the ethical basis of the professions.
Professional
Professional
Cat served USC for 6 years as the first Director of Belonging in the history of American higher ed. She is the course designer + instructor for CLICK!, gaining national media attention. As the Founder + CEO of The Belonging Studio, she helps individuals and institutions from single moms to the Department of Defense create a sense of belon
Cat served USC for 6 years as the first Director of Belonging in the history of American higher ed. She is the course designer + instructor for CLICK!, gaining national media attention. As the Founder + CEO of The Belonging Studio, she helps individuals and institutions from single moms to the Department of Defense create a sense of belonging.
She partnered with the Los Angeles Unified School District to analyze the role of relationships and integrity in systemic change before directing communications for a non-profit that helps locals to transform their contexts through relationships.
Her work has been cited in academic + popular sources + received multiple grants.
Personal
Personal
Until her mid 20's, Cat was so shy that she had trouble making eye contact in public. Through the slow, organic process of being present in her local cafes, she began hatching socially. Over the course of several years, she came to discover the power of listening, generosity, and other micro-gestures of friendliness to create community. S
Until her mid 20's, Cat was so shy that she had trouble making eye contact in public. Through the slow, organic process of being present in her local cafes, she began hatching socially. Over the course of several years, she came to discover the power of listening, generosity, and other micro-gestures of friendliness to create community. She came to experience the reality of interdependence, which renewed her conviction that community is not only possible for all of us, but is, in fact, the condition for human flourishing. Beyond the joy of broad + deep friendships, this unlikely cafe community came to save her life in the wake of unthinkable personal tragedy. Belonging is also a necessity of the soul in a world of constant change and persistent unfairness.