Our Mission
We collaborate with communities, funders, and system leaders to improve behavioral health prevention, support, and care so people at risk of or living with behavioral health challenges thrive.
Our Vision
Our vision is a future where children, youth, and adults at risk of or experiencing behavioral health challenges not only survive but thrive. We are committed to the prevention of behavioral health issues and ensuring that everyone has access to culturally relevant, high-quality services tailored to their unique needs when and where they need them.
Why We Exist
The prevalence and severity of behavioral health challenges facing our communities are growing, and the existing system is unable to meet the need. Where effective approaches and models exist, there is insufficient awareness, funding, and capacity to implement them. Where proven models don’t exist, we must reimagine them.
Who We Serve
Behavioral health affects everyone. By investing in efforts that strengthen critical support for the full range of behavioral health needs from prevention to crisis care, we build healthier, stronger communities. Because childhood experiences have a lasting impact on lifelong well-being, we focus on children, youth, and the well-being of their parents and caregivers.
Who We Are
We are a small team with diverse lived and professional experience who are passionate about improving behavioral health. Our work is guided by a growing Advisory Council made up of philanthropists, community advocates, and civic leaders.
Behavioral Health Catalyst is a fiscally sponsored project of Panorama Global.
Katherine Switz (she/her)
Executive Director
When Katherine was first hospitalized for bipolar disorder, she was greeted with the question, “What kind of insurance do you have?” In that moment, she was lucid enough to realize that she might get care that others wouldn’t. This experience fed her conviction that everyone should be able to live well regardless of behavioral health challenges.
Katherine believes deeply in the power of networks and their role in movement building — and recognizes the importance of them in improving behavioral health. She gets hope and inspiration from the collaborators across sectors she works with every day. As Executive Director of Behavioral Health Catalyst, she enjoys bringing people together to learn, collaborate, and ultimately act. Prior to the BH Catalyst, Katherine founded and led The Stability Network, a movement of people speaking out about their own mental health conditions. Katherine lives with her husband, Mark, and son, Ned, in Seattle. If you run into her, she loves to be asked about the latest book she is reading.
Dana Boggess (she/her)
Managing Director
When you meet Dana, she will tell you that behavioral health is at the root of everything we experience as modern humans. She looks at the world through the eyes of what “little Dana” would want, and envisions a future where children get the love and support they need to develop into secure, healthy, thriving adults living in connected communities. At Behavioral Health Catalyst, she has found her dream job — to collaborate with empathetic, dedicated people in Washington State in service of that vision. Dana leads in supporting the state's strategic plan for children and youth behavioral health, helps our Executive Director determine how Behavioral Health Catalyst can have the most impact, and manages our growing operations. Dana’s career has taken many turns, and she has consistently excelled at strategy, problem-solving, and bringing structure to ambiguity. In her free time, she enjoys spending time reading, traveling, and connecting with friends. She and her husband share their work-in-progress home with Olive — a stoic, nervous Catahoula Leopard Dog.
Raili Marks (she/her)
Director of Strategic Implementation, Washington Thriving Initiative
Raili is passionate about supporting positive transformation in behavioral health systems, and deeply motivated by the potential of communities, funding, and systems working together to make a positive difference in people’s lives. A native Washingtonian who has worked on local, national, and global initiatives supporting and scaling behavioral health programming and systems strengthening, Raili is overjoyed to have found herself supporting Washington Thriving, the effort to develop a statewide strategic plan to strengthen prenatal-through-age-25 behavioral health. She enjoys leveraging her ability to bring structure to complexity in service of improved outcomes for children, youth, and families statewide.
With an extensive background in strategic advisory roles, Raili has supported hundreds of organizations, networks, and coalitions in addressing challenges on an impactful scale. She enjoys adventuring, cooking with her partner, George, listening to podcasts, and cuddling up with Dallas, her 90-pound Lab/Dane mix. As a daughter, sister, aunt, partner, friend, neighbor, colleague, community member, citizen, and person in her own right, she has millions of living, breathing reasons to care about every individual’s right to live a happy and healthy life; and there is no health without behavioral health and wellness!
Emma Onstad-Hawes (she/her)
Manager, Philanthropy Program and Communications
Emma unequivocally believes in coordinated, comprehensive, and culturally appropriate health care. As the Manager of the Philanthropy Program and Communications for Behavioral Health Catalyst, Emma leads communications strategy and development across the organization, along with serving as a thought partner to the Executive Director in developing philanthropic goals and programming, in fundraising, and impact measurement. She is thrilled to have found a role where she can combine her passion for health equity, her background in behavioral health, and her skills in managing organizational processes and relationships.
Before joining Behavioral Health Catalyst, Emma worked in clinical research focused on Veterans who’ve experienced traumatic brain injury. She is excited by applying her detail-oriented, data-driven, and creative mindset to help to improve behavioral health outcomes for under-resourced communities in her home state of Washington. Outside of work, you can find Emma attending sporting events, working on art projects, baking her famous chocolate chip cookies, or spending time with friends, family, and her spunky cats, Roux and Callie.
Marisa Mondavé (she/her)
Program Associate
Marisa has a deep commitment to improving the lives, wellbeing, and mental health of youth and young adults. She identifies as a queer, cis woman with a Hispanic heritage she holds close to her heart. With her own lived experience navigating her mental health journey related to her queer identity as a teen, she values centering the voices and lived/living experience of communities most impacted by systemic harm and injustice in shaping and liberating our systems and communities. With previous experience working directly with youth and young adults experiencing homelessness, Marisa is committed to approaching her work with an anti-oppressive lens and a dedication to translating this direct experience into intentional, systems-level change. She brings this lens to her work at Behavioral Health Catalyst, where she supports the organization's evolving operational and programmatic needs in service of the broader mission. She is inspired to contribute to both the individual and collective healing of our society.
Marisa holds an M.P.H. with a focus in Community Health Sciences from UCLA. In her free time, she enjoys deepening her yoga practice, spending time communing with nature, and nurturing the meaningful relationships in her life. She loves traveling and experiencing new countries, cultures, and languages.
Advisory Council
Lua Belgarde
Traditional Wellness Manager,
Chief Seattle Club
Mark Fadool
Director, Soccer/Wellness;
Clinician
Cheryl Delostrinos
Social impact leader;
Former Director of Development at Young Women Empowered
Nick MacPhee
Co-founder, BH Catalyst;
Former Corporate Executive and Nonprofit Leader
Kathy Surace-Smith
Corporate executive and philanthropist;
Former Co-Chair, BH Catalyst
Explore more
Learn more about our philanthropy, policy, and community work. Keep up with events, news, announcements, and updates.