Catherine Foley

she/they

Communications Manager

New York, NY

Catherine Foley links together and amplifies powerful organizing campaigns across the U.S. that advance economic, racial, and climate justice. She crafts and implements communications strategies, creates content for PowerSwitch Action’s digital and social media, and serves as the coordinator and point person for external media.

Catherine became involved in social change movements through her love of literature, specifically visionary fiction, science fiction, and the work of Octavia Butler. She studied English and American Literature in college, where she was introduced to one of her favorite books of all time: Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements, co-edited by adrienne maree brown and Walidah Imarisha. In the book’s introduction, Imarisha writes that “all organizing is science fiction… We want organizers and movement builders to be able to claim the vast space of possibility, to be birthing visionary stories.”

Prior to joining the PowerSwitch Action team, Catherine worked at the Building Movement Project (BMP), a national nonprofit focused on strengthening the sector and individual organizations to advance social change. She led the organization’s internal and external communications, including social media, website management, newsletter programs, and strategies for report releases and virtual events. Catherine also provided programmatic support to projects across the organization. She facilitated learning sessions for program participants of the Solidarity Semester(a virtual training for youth leaders and activists), provided front and back-end support on webinars and in-person events, and managed the administrative and operations needs for remote and in-person staff. Before her time with BMP, Catherine worked at a NYC-based publishing house where she sourced and reviewed content for various online reference libraries (and got her first taste of organizing a union in the workplace).

Catherine graduated from New York University with a bachelor’s degree in English and American Literature. While at the Building Movement Project, she conducted interviews for a report titled On the Frontlines: Nonprofits Led by People of Color Confront COVID-19 and Structural Racism. She also co-developed and hosted an Instagram Live series called 10 Social Change Roles, Explained and presented during program sessions of the Solidarity Semester.

Outside of work, Catherine enjoys reading, playing board games (the more intricate, the better), running, tending to her plant babies, trying new restaurants in Astoria, and spending time with her nephew.