WORK WITH KAT

Kat Vellos is a multi-talented creator and her toolbox is deep. If you like titles, here are several she’s held: community creator, facilitator, group leader, UX designer, senior product designer, program director, project manager, author, artist, writer, poet, speaker, founder.

Check out the superpowers she’s focused on sharing these days:

SPEAKING & FACILITATION

Since the early 2000s Kat has been designing and facilitating transformative programs for individuals and groups. Her current focus is on helping people cultivate a greater sense of belonging in their personal lives and at work.

Kat’s methods are rooted in human-centered design, qualitative research, and creative empowerment, and informed by her lived experience as a Black, queer immigrant who has worked in both the for-profit and non-profit industry. Her natural ability at cultivating connection was bolstered with her facilitation certification in 2006 and her coaching certification in 2020. Kat’s speaking and facilitation work is ideal for companies and community groups who want to increase their levels of authentic connection and make brave strides towards growth and true belonging.

Since the release of her book, We Should Get Together in January 2020, Kat has been spreading the message her book extols: that the cultivation of thriving, resilient friendships and community is how we will heal our country’s loneliness epidemic — and that this is the number one issue that individuals and companies need to make a priority in the coming years. Learn more about her projects and check out her blog at weshouldgettogether.com.

Kat is available to speak at your next gathering or company event, interview with your media outlet or podcast, or to lead a fulfilling and inspiring workshop or fireside chat.

TESTIMONIALS

“Kat’s presence is like a warm hug from an old friend. Her compassionate, down-to-earth, and insightful facilitation is one of the best things I’ve chosen to enrich my creative workshops [at Adobe]. Every single person left Kat’s session more comfortable and open-hearted, which greatly enhanced the overall experience of my event and led to some real and deep connections.”
— Pollyanna Macchiano, Program Manager, Adobe

“Even with an all virtual audience, Kat Vellos’ Keynote lit up the room. Kat’s eloquent and powerful language inspired every single person in the audience to use their (design) power to create good change in this world. I couldn’t have asked for a better Keynote speaker to spread light, knowledge and empowerment to an audience of students and aspiring designers, writers, researchers and leaders.”

— Nadia Anees, VP External at the Davis Design Interactive and Co-Founder of Just Design

"Kat Vellos, is a visionary leader and inspirational speaker who I've had the pleasure to learn from and see in action. Over the years, she has managed to build a reputation as a luminary figure in her quest to bring people together, creating a network that fosters belonging, empathy and togetherness. Her passion to help people achieve their best is apparent in the way she speaks and lives out her life."
— Maurice Woods, founder, Inneract Project

“Kat Vellos is a compelling, hilarious and knowledgeable speaker. She engaged the entire room via clever anecdotes, accurately gauging the mood of the room, and starting off the presentation with thought provoking questions. She kept guests laughing and nodding — creating a perfect blend of hearing content and interacting with the content. She then gave off the cuff yet highly articulate responses to the many questions they had.”
— Vanessa Pope, co-founder MudLab

"Kat Vellos brings a generosity of spirit to any room she's in. Kat's work with We Should Get Together resonates with people across generations, disciplines, and backgrounds. Her attention to detail and observations about the needs and desires of today's generation is concise, researched, passionate, and inspiring. Kat's presentation at DFA Alumni + Friends: Building the Commons emphasized design's power to build community and create positive social impact!" 
— Alden Burke, Program Coordinator, Design for America

“Kat helped me see strengths in myself I hadn’t seen and encouraged me to realize a greater potential in me than I knew I had. That’s what Kat does; she’s a builder. And she’s the best.”
— Kendall Howse, Marketing Designer at Red Hat; Bay Area Black Designers Member

Design & Leadership

Note: Kat’s consulting calendar for design and product advisory roles is full.

Kat is a seasoned and beloved designer who possesses the unique ability to blend heart-centered right-brain creativity with analytical left-brain practicality. An extremely experienced researcher and designer, she’s created countless flows in digital products serving millions of people via her time at Slack, Pandora, the first iteration of Samsung’s Bixby, and multiple Silicon Valley startups. She currently serves on a select number of startup advisory boards. Her priority is working with companies whose products and services are making the world a healthier, more equitable, and positive place for all people, and who care deeply about creating healthy, diverse and supportive workplace cultures.

Testimonials

“Kat is absolutely the best User Experience Designer I’ve worked with in my 22 years in tech. Kat brings insightful technical acumen, depth of experience, a deep empathy for the user as a human beyond the “customer journey”, and wonderful team leadership skills all in one dynamic, kind, and warm person. Her natural leadership is a benefit to any team. She is one of my favorite teammates ever, and it’s because I’ve learned through being in the trenches with her that I can absolutely rely on her to lead us in the right path. And it’s also because I see her kind heart in everything she does, in how she shows up for people.”
— Ei-Nyung Choi, Staff Engineer, Slack

“Kat is one of the best UX people I have ever had the privilege of working with. Not only is she is bright, talented and capable, she also has the nicest personality. She can take complex workflows and simplify them, resulting in a big improvement in user experience.”
— Rishu Arora, Senior Product Manager, Pandora and Netflix 

“Kat is hands down one of one of the best managers I’ve ever worked with. With her intelligence and sound decision making skills, things just run smoothly when Kat’s in charge. Organized and positive, Kat has amazing people skills — her ability to connect with people is second to none. Kat has a remarkable ability to nurture professional growth in the people she manages with a warm and caring approach. In short, Kat is an inspiring leader and the kind of manager that brings out the best in people.”
— Barry Wong, Photography instructor, former direct report

“As a supervisor, Kat provided a skillful balance of trust and guidance; I felt deeply encouraged to cultivate and share my unique skills, while also feeling meaningfully supported by her counsel. Not only did Kat facilitate regular check-ins, she sought out additional resources in response to my experiences and gave me helpful feedback. Additionally, Kat consistently demonstrated clarity of purpose and vision in her role. I could trust that Kat would ask the kind of questions and maintain the kind of focus that would lead to integrity in our work. She also walked her talk by regularly taking creative risks, modeling humility, engaging in professional development, and working towards more equitable outcomes. It was a complete pleasure to be on Kat's team.”
— Devon Little, Facilitator, Social Artist, Consultant and Mediator, former direct report

Something else?

Reach out via the general contact form if your message isn’t about any of the above topics.