Kaat Vander Straeten

Platform Manager and Board Vice President

Kaat is a lead coordinator of EnergizeWayland, an associate member of the Wayland Energy and Climate Committee, and a coordinator for the Wayland Climate Mobilization (aka MOB). With Ellen, Kaat started MassEnergize in 2017. In 2015 she received Wayland’s Lydia Maria Child Award for her service to the town in all things green.

Kaat was also the “coach” for Wayland’s two successful Solarize Mass campaigns, and the founder of Transition Wayland, in 2010. Her full-time activism has followed the Transition Towns view that the local is the key to resilience because the local is personal and the local is everywhere.

Kaat is also a Certified Permaculture Designer, a graduate of E. Ingham’s Life in the Soil classes, a beekeeper and bee consultant, and a systems thinking enthusiast. She holds a MA in Communication Sciences and a Ph.d. in Philosophy, both from the University of Brussels, Belgium.