Kate [KAYT] Johnson (she/her) is a teacher, facilitator, writer and mother.   Buddhist Peace Fellowship is one of her most beloved spiritual and political homes – the place where she truly learned that the hard work of meaningful societal transformation can also be joyful, relational, and life-affirmingly effervescent. 

Kate began practicing Theravada Buddhism in the Western Insight tradition in her early 20’s, deeply influenced by the Thai Forest and Burmese Sayadaw lineages.  She has participated in many multi-month meditation retreats and multi-year teacher trainings, and graduated from Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s four-year retreat teacher training in 2020, under the leadership of Gina Sharpe, Larry Yang and Lila Kate Wheeler.  Kate began facilitating organizational training and retreats after co-founding the Meditation Working Group at Occupy Wall Street in 2011, and went on to help organize yoga and meditation communities in service of labor and environmental justice campaigns. She spent several years as a faculty member of MIT’s Presencing Institute, and she has spent much of the last decade working with leaders and organizations committed to equity, impact, sustainability, and the practice of wise relationships, using awareness-based and embodied practices to support communication, strategy, and relational culture.   

Kate holds a BFA in Modern Dance from the Alvin Ailey School/Fordham University and MA in Performance Studies from NYU.   She is the author of the book Radical Friendship: Seven Ways to Love Yourself and Find Your People in an Unjust World.  In off hours, Kate can be found exploring Philly with her kid, sipping tea with friends, and looking for all manner of good trouble.