Hi! 👋 I’m Catherine Woodiwiss. Thanks for visiting.
I’m a journalist turned experience architect. I work in creative response to my environment, and right now, seismic changes are afoot. As a result, my work is relational, helping to build & nurture our humanity through it all. Directionally this looks like helping us name what we value, express what makes us feel human & alive, and build & host models/experiences for collective life worth living.
What I'm up to at the moment:
Active Projects
🕯️ Hosting events in Austin for meaning, beauty, co-creation, & fun. Recent examples: film nights on love and desire, salons with historians and journalists, birthday & engagement parties for meaningful intimate celebration, pop-up theater & choirs for busy but devoted amateurs, existential field games, seasonal rituals, and curated storytelling nights.
🏛️ Building collective rituals, values, and practices for some of life’s most vulnerable moments, with teams of scientists, designers, artists, philosophers, entrepreneurs, & more in Canada, the US, and Europe. Live projects: For young people launching into adulthood: Liminal Learning. For people healing from major loss: The Social Healing Project. For people reimagining the future of capital, generosity, and relational wealth: Coralus.
REACH OUT FOR A “CURIOSITY CONVO” TO CHAT ABOUT THESE
🎙️ I was recently featured on Austin Community Capital talking about building for meaning - watch here & listen here.
✍️ I write a Substack about society & belonging. Sign up to read it if you’re curious about hope-spotting in the apocalypse (and peep my publication bylines below).
💌 My dance card for thoughtful, multidisciplinary, improvisational yes-and collaborators is always open. If that’s you, Say hi! I'd love to chat & see if we can play well together.
Past Work
For those who appreciate credentials, here’s who I've written for and some of my partners, funders, and clients:
📰 The Atlantic · The New York Times · Texas Monthly · The Washington Post · Sojourners · ThinkProgress · Books & Culture
🌐 American Association for the Advancement of Science · Austin Center for Design · Baylor University Science of Virtues Lab · Bloomberg Philanthropies · Center for American Progress · Colby College · College of William & Mary · Deloitte · European Commission on Culture & Creativity · Fetzer Institute · Games for Emotional & Mental Health · Guild of Future Architects · H-E-B · Interaction Design Association (IXDA) · Interintellect · iPortunus · Johns Hopkins University · Life Itself (Bergerac Hub) · Little Salon DC · Perspectiva + The Realisation Festival · Solutions Journalism Network · South by Southwest (SXSW) · Templeton Foundation · USAID · Yoxi
To great work + great fun,
Catherine
catherine.h.woodiwiss@gmail.com