About
I study how organizations survive what they didn't see coming.
Two decades of fieldwork, and uncomfortable questions — in service of one idea: that adaptation is a capability, not a response.
Katrina has spent twenty years embedded in organizations at the edge of disruption — not as a consultant with a framework to sell, but as a practitioner trying to understand what actually happens when institutions are forced to change.
Her work sits at the intersection of organizational psychology, leadership theory, and the sociology of change. She is best known for three original frameworks — the Adaptation Loop, the Silence Tax, and the Uncertainty Tolerance Index.
Before turning to research full-time, Katrina spent a decades working inside organizations navigating transformation: mergers, restructurings, leadership transitions, and the quieter, slower disruptions that don't make headlines but reshape institutions just as profoundly. That experience gave her a practitioner's instinct for what matters and what doesn't — and a healthy skepticism of ideas that work in theory but dissolve on contact with real organizations.
Today she divides her time between research, writing, and speaking. She works with executive teams, leadership development programs, and organizations in the middle of change — not to tell them what to do, but to help them think more clearly about what's actually happening and why.
"The organizations that will define the next decade aren't the ones that managed change well. They're the ones that stopped needing to."
Background
PhD, Human Capital Management
Bellevue University Dissertation in process Toxic Peace: The Role of Group Harmony in Suppressing Employee Voice
MS, Organizational Development & Behavior
Georgia State University
BBA, Major Management, Minor Accounting
Georgia State University
Volunteer
Partners in Food Solutions, Africa
Adjunct Faculty, Human Resources Graduate Degree
Bellevue University
How I think
Rigor over reassurance.
The most dangerous ideas in organizational life are the ones that feel true. I try to hold every framework — including my own — to the same standard: does the evidence actually support this, or does it just confirm what we already wanted to believe?
Right sized solutions that WORK.
Organizations are not machines. They are human systems, which means they are messy, contradictory, and resistant to clean solutions. I'm suspicious of any framework that makes organizational change sound easy — and I try to build ones that deal with the hard facts and realities of what it takes.
Practice over prescription.
Research that stays in journals doesn't change anything. Every idea I develop has to survive contact with real organizations, real leaders, and real constraints. If it doesn't work in the field, it doesn't work.
Conferences, leadership summits, executive offsites, and corporate all-hands. Every engagement is customized to the audience and context — no off-the-shelf keynotes.
Work with Katrina.
Speaking engagements, research collaborations, executive briefings, and advisory work. Tell us what you're working on.