Meet Kate Raphael, Visual Storyteller & Intrepid Life-Adventurer!
We're pleased as punch to include Kate in our Rwanda delegation as our video/photographer! I hope that each of you will be equally thrilled to welcome this talented artist and professional, both in her documentarian role as well as a fellow participant! She will help thoughtfully record the story of our trip in images and sound, with graceful care and an artist's eye.
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She prefers to operate like a "fly on the wall," but let's drop the 'bug' references—we prefer to think of her as our "visual guardian angel." Welcome, Kate!
A sample of her beautiful work!
Kate Raphael is a filmmaker, artist, storyteller, writer, strategist, therapist, advocate, and mother. Raphael has written and produced numerous short, mission-focused documentaries for organizations doing important work in education, health, the environment, women’s rights and human rights at home and across the globe. Raphael’s path to filmmaking is an unlikely one. She began her career as an English teacher in an all-girls boarding school in Western Kenya as part of World Teach, a Harvard program designed to provide teachers to underserved rural schools. There she worked to empower young women to stay in school in spite of cultural pressures to get married.
Raphael then taught AP English at the American School of Guatemala, returning home when the civil war began heating up in the late 1980’s. After returning to the U.S., Raphael earned her Masters of Social Work and worked as a child and family therapist with families struggling with homelessness and addiction. She then shifted from direct service to policy, working as a political strategist for several issue campaigns and then as education advisor to Portland, Oregon Mayor Tom Potter. Raphael then worked as a communications strategist for Pyramid Communications, a communications company specializing is serving the Pacific Northwest’s largest nonprofits.
Finally, because of an earthquake in Chile, film became her advocacy tool of choice. Raphael founded Kate Raphael Communications and Studio Kate in 2010. She serves as Studio Kate’s writer, strategist, producer and director, and works with a rock-star crew she steals from the sets of Portlandia and Grimm. She cannot squelch her strategic brain, and is relentless about producing and distributing films to inspire action and change. Clients include the Oregon Community Foundation, the Oregon Health & Science University Foundation, United Way of the Columbia-Willamette, Maasai Children’s Initiative, Nike School Innovation Fund in partnership with the Beaverton School District, PacificAg, Craft3, Climate Solutions, Oregon Business Association, CareOregon, Oregon Health Authority, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and the Oregon Medical Association. Raphael received her B.A. from the University of Virginia and her Masters of Social Work from Portland State University.
She lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband, Tim, her teenage daughter, one dog, three cats and two chickens. She has a son who attends University of Oregon and a second son who attends Whitman College.
Raphael then taught AP English at the American School of Guatemala, returning home when the civil war began heating up in the late 1980’s. After returning to the U.S., Raphael earned her Masters of Social Work and worked as a child and family therapist with families struggling with homelessness and addiction. She then shifted from direct service to policy, working as a political strategist for several issue campaigns and then as education advisor to Portland, Oregon Mayor Tom Potter. Raphael then worked as a communications strategist for Pyramid Communications, a communications company specializing is serving the Pacific Northwest’s largest nonprofits.
Finally, because of an earthquake in Chile, film became her advocacy tool of choice. Raphael founded Kate Raphael Communications and Studio Kate in 2010. She serves as Studio Kate’s writer, strategist, producer and director, and works with a rock-star crew she steals from the sets of Portlandia and Grimm. She cannot squelch her strategic brain, and is relentless about producing and distributing films to inspire action and change. Clients include the Oregon Community Foundation, the Oregon Health & Science University Foundation, United Way of the Columbia-Willamette, Maasai Children’s Initiative, Nike School Innovation Fund in partnership with the Beaverton School District, PacificAg, Craft3, Climate Solutions, Oregon Business Association, CareOregon, Oregon Health Authority, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and the Oregon Medical Association. Raphael received her B.A. from the University of Virginia and her Masters of Social Work from Portland State University.
She lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband, Tim, her teenage daughter, one dog, three cats and two chickens. She has a son who attends University of Oregon and a second son who attends Whitman College.