Our Team

Chris Wallace Caldwell

Founder & Principal Consultant

Bringing calm, compassion, and honesty to her work, she helps individuals and teams meet their most urgent challenges.

Since founding Catalysis in 2011, Chris has worked throughout Oregon, the U.S., and internationally. Chris provides customized support to organizational leaders, management teams, non-profit boards, and foundations. She brings a background and a commitment to mission-driven leadership. 

Chris is passionate about supporting mission-driven leaders and leadership teams. She serves as faculty for the Institute for Equity-Centered Coaching and is a certified Equity-Centered Coach and Leader. She holds a Masters in Speech Communication.

She is a past commissioner on the Portland Human Rights Commission and currently serves as a volunteer facilitator for Portland’s chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice.

Chris is an avid reader of visionary fiction, loves being outside year round, kickboxing, and is an artist. She is continually working on her Spanish language skills and hopes to be bilingual someday.

Lauren Moreno

Senior Consultant & Director of Community Impact

She enjoys creating space and systems that unleash the power of a group to envision and realize the future they want to see.

Lauren centers the needs of communities her clients serve. By adeptly synthesizing diverse perspectives, stakeholder input, and research, she often reveals critical insight to help clients make data-informed decisions and address complex problems. A lifelong learner, Lauren is committed to the ongoing practice of centering equity across her work and cultivating a culture of belonging within teams.

Lauren has deep experience in non-profit leadership, fundraising, program evaluation, and project management. She holds expertise in science communication and STEM education. Lauren has served as Principal Investigator or in leadership roles for several National Science Foundation education grants. She served on the board of the Institute for Learning Innovation from 2015 – 2021 and is a Senior Advisor to the Association for Science Communicators.

An Oregonian since birth, Lauren enjoys the rain as much as the sunshine and loves adventuring outdoors with her two young kids and husband. She makes 5-star weekend pancakes and savors moments of stillness with her morning coffee.

Kyle Yoshioka

Relationship Manager

Kyle fosters a commitment to community building and anti-oppression work. He is a founding member of a Portland-based collective that has raised more than $25,000 to date for local, regional, and international causes. As a grant writer, he has helped numerous mission-driven organizations and individuals alike win funding for community-based projects.

Away from work, Kyle is a ceramicist, creative writer, and editor.

Alison Allen-Hall, PhD

Coach and Organizational Consultant Collaborator

In addition to her teaching responsibilities, she is Managing Director of LynxSE, an organizational equity coaching consultancy based in Portland, Oregon. 

With Catalysis, Alison provides coaching, facilitation, and expertise on organizational equity, bringing a research perspective and a customized approach to understanding and nurturing organizational and individual change.

Jamila Aurora Dozier

Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion Collaborator

In the Portland community, Jamila has served as the co-chair of Metro’s Committee on Racial Equity (CORE), board member for Rose CDC and Verde, and commissioner on the Portland Human Rights Commission. In all of Jamila’s work she utilizes targeted universalism, centering populations who are most marginalized and vulnerable when making decisions and providing support to individuals. 

Jamila founded New Theory Consulting in 2020 and has provided training and education, strategic planning, leadership development and coaching, and racial equity support for a variety of organizations nationwide. New Theory Consulting LLC is a certified women-owned emerging small business (OMWESB) based in Portland, Oregon.

Jamila is an aspiring bassist, artist, and recently reconnecting with her Puerto Rican indigenous roots.

Adam Segal

Coach & Facilitator Collaborator

Adam provides support through coaching (including one-on-one male accountability work), group facilitation, stakeholder interviews, and strategic planning both individually and alongside the Catalysis team.

Adam is active in the Portland chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), facilitating small groups of white people learning to work against white supremacy and challenge systemic racism.

Adam has spent years in myriad roles throughout the culinary service industry. This experience has informed his understanding of power, and deepened his commitment to building just systems based on compassion and care, rather than on privilege and dominance.

Shirell Hennessy

Marketing & Storyteller Collaborator

Renowned for her ability to pinpoint target audiences and design marketing and business strategies that deliver measurable impact, Shirell has consistently driven success throughout her career. She is also a masterful content creator, known for uncovering compelling stories and sharing them effectively across diverse communication channels.

Her expertise spans the full spectrum of communications, from crafting and pitching press releases and feature stories to journalists across media channels, print, broadcast, and digital platforms, to securing meaningful media coverage for her clients.

A strategic visionary, Shirell is skilled at developing long-term public relations strategies that seamlessly integrate with broader marketing and communication goals. She has successfully devised marketing strategies for B2B and B2C organizations, consistently delivering improved ROI, optimized messaging, and cost-efficiency.

Outside of her professional life, Shirell is a lover of Portland’s vibrant cultural and food scene, and also enjoys traveling and spending time at the Oregon Coast throughout the year.

Niko Swanson-Brownell

Program Coordinator

Their focus on community building has enabled more efficient systems as well as fostering interpersonal relationships that support equity. With Catalysis, Niko supports the delivery of client programs by coordinating operational functions, conducting research, and assisting in the implementation of program improvements.

In their work, Niko finds joy in the details - the unique and important interconnected small parts that make things function smoothly when carefully attended. In their free time they enjoy writing poetry, spending time with goats and wise trees, tending to their numerous houseplants and other important creative projects.