The process and guidance that you provided was incredibly helpful for our team. I think you have a unique ability to help push and guide our thinking in a way that left room for creativity but provided enough guide rails to help us make decisions and move the project forward. You clearly have a deep appreciation and understanding for educators and school communities and it made working together particularly easy. I also just appreciated the positivity and creativity that you brought to our team spaces. It was a true pleasure to work with you and have you spend time with the team.

—Dominique McKoy, Executive Director, UChicago To&Through Project, Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice

Katie is so super creative, thoughtful and a convener of brilliant people! She sought out feedback at every step, incorporated it, and kept our org's big picture in mind.‍ ‍ Everyone at our org who has worked with Katie shares that she is easy to work with, a strong listener, able to synthesize feedback, and build final products that are thoughtful, useful and aesthetically pleasing! Having a brilliant tool that we can use along with the videos is so useful for calibration of coach practice and schools having a shared experience. This exceeded my vision for the work - and not just in content, but in terms of the quality of the final product. We are so lucky to work with Foreword Motion!

— Aurora Kushner, Vice President, School Programming and Impact, NYC Outward Bound Schools

My heart is incredibly full from all of the magic that happened on a Friday afternoon in the Bronx, my former home. I am so grateful to be part of this work and it has been heartwarming to see it in practice! Katie, you are truly a visionary and I'm grateful to work alongside you.

— Dr. Crystal Belle, Author, Start with Radical Love: Antiracist Pedagogy for Social Justice Educators

Our member organizations shared how valuable the training and storytelling experience were, and we now have tools and skills we can continue using in the future. The story matrix helped us see connections across the stories and think about how parents' experiences could help inform our policy and advocacy work, not just our communications. In the few weeks, we had more than 24,000 views across Facebook and Instagram, including non-followers. I personally learned so much from Katie, especially about ethical storytelling and how we approach interviews with parents. I'm more intentional about using parents' own words and making their voice come through. I want the stories to feel like something we wrote together, rather than something I wrote about them.

—Alma El Issa, Communications Manager, United Parent Leaders Action Network (UPLAN)

The project really solidified my belief that the story is where my passion is. Katie, you are so driven, focused, and forward (foreword) thinking. Even when I wanted to linger on every tiny detail you were gracious in accepting the feedback and confident in driving the work toward its next step. You're a true pro, and working with you was such a positive experience.

—Kari Horn Lehman, Founder, Fresh Air Kid

I enjoyed the multiple connections and methods to make connections [in the Stories in Progress class].Katie is a wonderful teacher/facilitator. She brought her genuine self to the space and toevery detail, everything from preparing the curriculum, making the presentations exciting by including us in them, her flexibility and most importantly her beautiful soul. I learned all the ways in which a story could be told. I walk the world collecting tools. Along the way I pull those tools out and test and modify. My tool kit has grown and so has my confidence to tell a story in different ways.

— Lucy Gomez Feliciano, Community Engagement Director, Here to Stay Community Land Trust

I really enjoyed learning the protocols and then practicing them together [in the Stories in Progress class]. I learned to listen deeply. Each time we did an activity together, I couldn't stop thinking about it during the week. Katie is an amazing teacher. Her demeanor is so calming and conducive to learning.

— Dr. Gloria McDaniel-Hall, Urban Legends and National-Louis University

Katie was knowledgeable and knew how to get this project done. She could give suggestions, was always seeking feedback, and would incorporate feedback as she went. She could connect with educators, speak their language, and build their authentic voice into the work. This feels so connected to the process because it would have taken much longer to work with someone who didn't speak this language. Katie also adjusted in real time to a shift in our business/name. This was hugely helpful that she could flow with this shift. The videos felt like they captured authentic educator voice and the aspirational element of building a real educator community.

— Erica Crane, CEO, sideby

I learned the importance of having clear key messages, and then aligning artifacts with these messages. My colleagues on the team had glowing reviews of the video. Truly appreciate your willingness to share your time and expertise with me.

— Iris Lattimore, Director of Storytelling, 2Revolutions

Katie was so proactive in naming her questions at the beginning, expressing her flexibility and desire to work on the project. We troubleshooted the best process and then she took off! We were pressed for time and trying something new on our end, so there was more uncertainty coming from us which Katie handled beautifully. The presentation is bilingual and looks exciting— it got a positive reaction from our parent leaders.

— Rachel Ramirez, United Parent Leaders Action Network (UPLAN)

Katie is so knowledgeable about telling stories with video in compelling and beautiful ways. She also is so understanding about the vulnerabilities of being in a video. She is respectful of the creative choices that I felt comfortable with, and also offered her advice when I felt stuck or just "wanted something different". Her communication and process were clear and easy to access. I have a visually appealing, engaging video that showcases my relationship with the land and what it has to teach us about organizations, transformation, and leadership. I would whole-heartedly recommend Foreword Motion for any video production--small or large--that wants to tell a beautiful, human-centered story about work they believe in. Katie is a delight to work with and learn from.

— Colleen Stanevich, Founder and Regenerative Leadership Strategist, My Innermission

Katie is an incredible collaborator, storyteller, facilitator, and my favorite client to work for! I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with Katie on a range of video projects. She empowers me to bring my most creative and authentic workto the table, and is extremely supportive and nurturing in her feedback and communication. I admire and respect her storytelling instincts, and her ability to connect with educators and students of all ages, in a broad spectrum of communities and learning environments. 

— Sebastian Buffa, Filmmaker

Working closely with Katie, I have seen firsthand how she prioritizes relationships in this work. Katie not only values the voices of all people, she actively works to bring those voices to light and honors everyone’s contributions in a heartfelt way. Katie has worked tirelessly to help EL’s multimedia assets to keep up with the market trends. She has been keenly aware of where we need to go, what we need to talk about, and who we need to work with in order to move ahead. The multimedia department would not exist without her fearless leadership and vision to bring greater awareness to the power of collective storytelling for our organization.

— Marcus Hung, Multimedia Director, EL Education