We Know We Will Get There

The land feels more pristine, intact. This potency drew me in as we took the journey to get here. Approaching the bay at Whaletown for the first time, I had this rush over my body and a knowing that I was willing to devote myself to this land and to this place.”

Katia describes her journey to becoming CEO of Hollyhock—a renowned not-for-profit centre for transformative leadership and learning on the unceded lands of the Klahoose, Tla’amin, and Homalco Nations—as nothing short of magical. She found herself far from home, with her family in tow, on a mystery path that she never could have anticipated.

"When things come that aren’t the way we had planned or envisioned them, I trust it more,” Katia says.“This whole thing was meant to be—it felt more interesting, guided, and purposeful. I did keep questioning: Does this feel right? Does this feel right for my family? And it does.”

At 16, she had a profound spiritual awakening that connected her with a sense of greater purpose and meaning, and decided to devote her life to service and making the world a better place. At 18, she deferred university to volunteer in an Indigenous community in Bolivia for nine months, which led to her discovering her life’s work in transformative learning and leadership.

Fast forward to 2024, when Katia had just taken a radical pause from her then 25-year career working as a purpose-guided leadership practitioner. The combination of mothering three kids, running her own business, and working multiple contract jobs in the busy San Francisco Bay Area, all while suffering from long COVID, became too much.

She had repeatedly gotten the message that to fully heal, she needed to slow down, pause, and rest.

“That was really challenging for me,” Katia says. “So much of my self-worth was tied to being of service.” She decided to take a six month sabbatical to heal, write, and listen.

Five days into this highly anticipated break, Katia got a message from a longtime friend and colleague, that Hollyhock was searching for their next CEO. She had never heard of Hollyhock or Cortes Island, and she was not looking for a job. So, Katia ignored the message, and carried on with her sabbatical. But after receiving another message a month later—this time from the executive search firm hired by Hollyhock—she decided to look at the job posting.

Katia had always had a vision of building a land-based transformative living and leading centre and every path in her life was a little step toward this dream. “One of the three intentions for my sabbatical was to listen for where the land was and who the people were with whom I was supposed to create that center. But I was under the assumption I was going to do it from scratch,” she says. “Then when I learned about Hollyhock, I felt this deep, deep resonance. I scoured the website, watched all the videos, and decided to apply. There were many moments of synchronicity. I realized that perhaps this was the fulfillment of the dream I had been carrying—more beautiful than I could have designed it.”

But in addition to the synchronicities, there were also impediments. Suddenly, she had to upend her life—as well as her husband’s, her six-year-old’s, and that of her teenage sons. After the decision was made, many unfortunate hurdles followed, including her husband’s cancer diagnosis, a major car accident while on the drive to move to Canada, and her mentor’s unexpected death.

"From a spiritual perspective, I’ve felt perplexed by all these obstacles,” Katia says. “It felt so clear, like I’m being called and asked to do this, so why is transitioning my family so hard? Could this be easier please?”

“I thought it was a message for me, because the road my family was facing was indeed muddy and rough, but I trusted we would get there!”

Months later, when Katia had started as CEO, and her team found out she could sing, they told her that she needed to learn the adopted “Hollyhock Song” (written by Osibisa, a popular Ghanaian group). Turns out the song Katia heard had been sung by the original Hollyhock stewards for decades, who too knew they would “get there” despite many rough patches on the path. 

Katia spent her first Hollyhock season on the land listening and observing. There were Hollyhock programs and events every week: Dinner by the Sea, Women in Climate, the Social Venture Institute, a staff Ecology of Leadership course, and many retreats focused on topics such as spiritual practice, creativity, relationships, mindfulness, and embodiment. While a lot of the content was focused on inner and outer peace, the schedule for Katia was intensive. “It was like drinking from a fire hydrant,” she says. 

Now almost a year later, with her urban child running barefoot in the woods and with her family revelling in a night sky so dark that you can’t see your hand in front of your face, Katia’s focus is on being of service to the island and the Hollyhock community. “It will take time to earn the trust of the Hollyhock and Cortes island community—and to embed ourselves in it.” 

Katia’s vision for the future is big—she dreams of Hollyhock growing into a Living Leadership practice center, in which the Hollyhock community and campus embody the regenerative principles and inner and outer leadership skills that are most needed to live in right relationship with one another and the earth at this crucial time on the planet.   

As the organization says, “Lasting change in the world begins when we renew our connection with ourselves, with each other, and with the living world.” And with their beautiful programs, accommodations, home-grown food, and community, Hollyhock offers a kick-start to that reconnection.

Check out the Hollyhock website to view their newly launched 2026 program calendar. You may be surprised where it takes you.

Visit hollyhock.ca to discover more.