CREATIVE STRATEGIST ∗ ANTI-OPPRESSION FACILITATOR ∗ BUSINESS MENTOR
ABOUT TRISTAN
THEY/HE
I'm a writer, speaker, facilitator, and consultant with a lifelong commitment to human rights and justice.
I spent thirteen years working in journalism and editing before I ever called myself a marketing strategist. Alongside my studies of politics, social movements, and human rights, I learned how stories get framed, whose voices are heard, and who benefits from the version that’s told.
Marketing operates on the same machinery, and those questions followed me into it.
My work is rooted in a trauma-informed lens, integrating decades of study in culturally competent marketing, business strategy, and anti-oppression facilitation and education. I offer strategic consulting, equity-centered trainings, and marketing and business support for individuals, small businesses, and organizations.
I regularly partner with educators, movement leaders, authors, and change-makers—folks whose work often shows up in NPR, NBC, The New York Times, and USA Today. Together, we co-create marketing and messaging strategies that center relationship over transaction, truth over polish, and impact over performance.
FROM 1998 - TODAY
How I got here
a winding, non-traditional path into marketing
1998-2019
I studied Politics and Latin American Studies at UC Santa Cruz and edited the student paper, then spent some of my twenties writing and editing for the Santa Fe Reporter and The Santa Fean. I thought journalism was going to be how I did human rights work.
I thought the same thing when I completed my MA in Human Rights and Latin American Studies from the University of New Mexico in 2011—neither went the way I pictured, and I use both every single day.
In 2000, I started practicing yoga; in 2015, I completed my first teacher training and began teaching primarily in outreach settings.
2008-2019
I spent a decade as Chief Operating Officer of the Katz Roadshow—my father’s touring carpentry-education events business. Over this time, we created an online magazine, THISisCarpentry, and I served as Managing Editor—building the readership and advertising program from scratch.
This is where I learned how a business actually works from the inside. It’s also where I started to understand marketing as more than just a transaction.
Alongside this professional experience, I continued immersing myself in the study and practice of yoga. Eventually I decided I didn’t want to be a yoga teacher—I wanted to be a deeply dedicated student.
2018-TODAY
I started working for myself in 2018, formally opening Tristan Katz Creative in 2019.
This is when the threads started to come together, and when I started to integrate a larger understanding of what “marketing” can be.
Over the last almost-ten years, I've continued training in yoga and beyond—including racial equity, emergent facilitation, restorative justice, disability justice, and more.
In 2023 I completed a 300hr Skill in Action Yoga Teacher Training with Michelle Cassandra Johnson, and I continue to study and practice yoga.
ORGANIZATIONS I’VE COLLABORATED WITH:
CLIENTS. COLLABORATIONS. WHAT’S NEXT.
I’ve had the honor of presenting and facilitating for programs with Stanford University, HubSpot, Portland Public Schools, the Port of Portland, LoveYourBrain, Williston Northampton School, and the Iyengar Yoga National Association of the US, among others.
These collaborations span education, tech, wellness, and publishing—and are united by a commitment to justice-rooted leadership and meaningful change.
Five years of co-facilitation
Since 2021 I’ve partnered with Michelle Cassandra Johnson and Stephanie Ghoston Paul, creating programming such as:
∗ The Art of Skillful Facilitation
∗ Meeting the Moment: A Facilitation Training
∗ The Alchemy of Facilitation
∗ Unwell Together: Ritual, Community, and Ceremony in the Polycrisis
I collaborate regularly with Brooke Monaghan as co-steward of FRUITION GROWTH NETWORK, a platform offering accessible support for entrepreneurs and small businesses; we also host Re-imagining Online Business, streaming wherever you get your podcasts.
I frequently co-create with leaders and educators in yoga, business coaching, activism and social change, and more.
YOGA. ACCESSIBILITY. EMBODIED LEADERSHIP.
I began training in yoga and social justice, and in trauma-informed, neurosensitive teaching in 2015, then completed a 300hr Skill in Action Yoga & Social Justice Teacher Training with Michelle Cassandra Johnson in 2023.
I taught yoga in studios, hospitals, and recovery centers, and I served on the Board of Directors of Accessible Yoga from 2021 until the organization closed in 2024.
I continue to teach on faculty with the Accessible Yoga School, LoveYourBrain, Elemental Moon Yoga School, and other training programs nationwide.
My work has appeared in The Teacher’s Guide to Accessible Yoga by Jivana Heyman, Yoga Journal, Yoga Love Magazine, and Elephant Journal.
MY FIRST BOOK ∗ COMING MARCH 2027 ∗ NORTH ATLANTIC BOOKS ∗
MY FIRST BOOK ∗ COMING MARCH 2027 ∗ NORTH ATLANTIC BOOKS ∗
We Are the Message
Rethinking Visibility, Marketing, & Power in the Digital Age
This is a book about how we move through the digital world—what we amplify, who we center, and how we build trust in a time of crisis and hyper-visibility.
We’ve been taught that visibility equals value, that urgency equals relevance, and that content equals worth. We Are the Message challenges the dominant norms—in marketing and beyond—that disconnect us from ourselves and one another. The book offers tools and practices for reframing our relationship to the digital space as a place to care for the collective.
FOREWORD
Michelle Cassandra Johnson
Author, activist, and facilitator. Decades of social change work, and author of Skill in Action: Radicalizing Your Yoga Practice to Create a Just World, The Wisdom of the Hive: What Honeybees Can Teach us about Collective Wellbeing, and more.
Michelle’s latest book, You Are Protected, will be available fall 2026.
MY APPROACH
My work is shaped by decades of study across journalism, politics and social change, conflict resolution, and leadership.
I’ve spent nearly 1,000 hours of training in facilitation, social justice, yoga and embodiment—including a 300-hour Skill in Action Teacher Training and a year-long facilitation training with Michelle Cassandra Johnson.
EDUCATION
MA Human Rights & Latin American Studies
University of New Mexico, 2012
BA Politics & Latin American Studies
UC Santa Cruz, 2005
EMBODIMENT + ACCESS
18hr Trauma-Informed, Brain-Sensitive Yoga Teacher Training — DAYA Foundation, 2016
200hr Yoga & Social Justice Teacher Training — DAYA Foundation, 2015
200hr Yoga & Ayurveda Teacher Training — DAYA Foundation, 2015
FACILITATION, EQUITY, + JUSTICE
✻ Facilitating Disagreement — AORTA, April 2025
✻ Facilitating Decision-Making — AORTA, February 2025
✻ Facilitate for Freedom Fundamentals — AORTA, September 2024
✻ 300hr Skill in Action Yoga Teacher Training with Michelle Cassandra Johnson, 2023
✻ 20hr Training-of-Trainers with Dr. Eli Green & Eliza Davison, Transgender Training Institute, 2021
✻ Race & Resistance Year-long Facilitation Training with Michelle Cassandra Johnson, 2020
✻ Decolonized Approaches to Facilitation with King Yaa & Eri Guajardo Johnson, July 2020
✻ Artful Facilitation Grounded in Racial Equity — Resolutions Northwest, April 2020
✻ Introduction to Restorative Justice — Resolutions Northwest, January 2020
Alongside formal trainings, I’ve also had the honor of learning from teachers like Loretta Ross, Nicole Cardoza, Mia Mingus, Dean Spade, Tema Okun, Vivette Jeffries-Logan, Teo Drake, Kenya Budd, and many others.
my values
I’m based on the land of the Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla, Clackamas, and many other tribes, now known as Portland, Oregon.
My work is rooted in anti-racist and anti-patriarchal praxis.
In recognition of systemic oppression, marginalization, anti-Black racism, and settler colonialism, I stay committed to ongoing learning and to meaningful action—through this work, and in solidarity with broader movements for justice.
I keep accessible offers in the mix at every level of the work, payment plans are available with no fee and no justification required, and sliding scale pricing applies in some areas—designed into my business model rather than offered as a discount.
I share free workshops, tools, and resources regularly, and both my podcast projects are free spaces for additional learning and engagement.
Looking for support?
I work primarily online—consulting, speaking, and teaching remotely—and travel occasionally for in-person engagements when access, capacity, and availability align.
Don’t hesitate to contact me if you’re not sure what you need.