Our Mission
We catalyze equitable investments, policies, and partnerships to ensure that those impacted by behavioral health challenges thrive.
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.
Our Vision
Our vision is a future where individuals 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 every individual has access to culturally relevant, high-quality services tailored to their unique needs when and where they need them.
Who We Serve
We advocate for the well-being of children and youth in under-resourced and historically marginalized communities through facilitating connections in philanthropy, policy, and communities. Knowing that mental health is strongly influenced by early experiences and the ecosystem surrounding children, we also consider the well-being of parents, caregivers, teachers, and communities at large.
Who We Are
We are a small team with diverse lived and professional experience who are passionate about improving behavioral health outcomes. 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)
Director of Programs, Strategy, and Operations
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.
Sarah Rafton (she/her)
Washington Thriving Policy & Advocacy Director
Early in her career, Sarah was inspired to improve health care access and quality as she witnessed a behavioral health system helping kids too late and failing to support families’ broader social and financial needs. Today, Sarah is gratified by the community in Washington state who is banding together to help children, youth and families as early as possible with effective care and support.
Behavioral Health Catalyst works to achieve many of Sarah's professional dreams – to prevent behavioral health issues and to ensure timely, culturally relevant and effective care, where and when people need it. In her role, Sarah partners with elected officials, state agencies, providers, families and a broad-based community to translate the vision of Washington Thriving into policy action.
Sarah earned her Master of Social Work and bachelor’s in political science from the University of Washington. Sarah has worked in health care and health policy in Washington state for 27 years to increase resources and supports for families, such as patient navigation at Seattle Children’s Hospital, establishing elementary school-based health clinics, and increasing kids’ access to primary care and behavioral health care. Sarah enjoys skiing with her husband and daughter, cuddling with her two dogs, running and paddleboarding.
Raili Marks (she/her)
Strategy Lead - Washington Thriving
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)
Program Coordinator
Emma unequivocally believes in coordinated, comprehensive, and culturally appropriate health care. As a program coordinator for Behavioral Health Catalyst, Emma works across all facets of the organization – philanthropy, policy, and community – serving as a “chief of staff” to the Executive Director, coordinating the philanthropy program, supporting the policy program, and leading our growing communications efforts. 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.
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 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 cat, Roux.
Danae Villarreal (she/her)
Policy Program Associate
Danae is a lifelong learner with a healthy obsession for mastering new information and skills. She’s been passionate about mental health accessibility and reducing the stigma of accessing care for the better part of the last decade. She brings a unique perspective to this work – having grown up in a rural, predominantly Hispanic Washington community where behavioral health services were not readily available. She has great pride in this upbringing and loves being able to contribute to increasing behavioral health services to all underserved communities of Washington through her work at Behavioral Health Catalyst.
Danae is passionate about social equity, diversity, and inclusion. She is excited about the opportunity to elevate as many voices as possible in her daily work by supporting the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Work Group (CYBHWG) and its members.
She has a background in sales and business development within the private and public technology sectors and spent several years working as a webmaster for non-profits like Othello Community Museum, Othello Food Bank, and Shasta Roller Derby. She is currently pursuing a Masters of Social Work at Pacific Lutheran University.
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
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Learn more about our philanthropy, policy, and community work. Keep up with events, news, announcements, and updates.