Owl in a Tree is a design and communications studio founded by Rachelle Galloway-Popotas. Rachelle has over 20 years of experience working for mission-driven organizations as a communications strategist, editorial and art director, graphic designer, writer and editor, and curator of large-scale events.

Rachelle served as the communications director at one of the US’s most innovative think and action tanks—the Othering & Belonging Institute at the University of California, Berkeley for over six years. As one of its first employees, she helped build the Othering & Belonging Institute’s communications infrastructure during a time of rapid growth. She helped identify, establish, and amplify the Institute’s public voice and identity, working across a wide range of program areas to make its framework of “belonging” more widely accessible and utilized by grassroots, government, and policy groups for long-term, transformative change in the areas of racial and social justice.

Some highlights of Rachelle’s work on some of theOthering & Belonging Institute’s flagship projects include:

  • Co-leading a comprehensive rebrand and re-naming of the Institute in 2019, including managing the rollout, creative services firm, and intensive multi-stakeholder engagement process;

  • Serving as lead curator and conference director of its first three highly popular Othering & Belonging conferences plus its switch to virtual format in April 2021 with a one-day Summit;

  • Producing and art directing a series of animated explainer videos to help popularize a set of conceptual frameworks including bridging and breaking, targeted universalism, and the circle of human concern, all concepts which are widely used by social movement leaders, narrative strategists, policy institutes, and philanthropic and nonprofit professionals.

  • Serving on the editorial board, art directing, and launching its multimedia journal;

  • Helping to seed and institutionalize an integrative arts and cultural strategy within the Institute as a core program in order to expand on its social science research and support its partnerships with grassroots movements;

  • Leading and executing the New Social Compact for America campaign following the 2016 election;

  • Establishing its yearly Artist in Residence;

  • Co-leading the development and rollout of its Impact Report, including research, discovery, and writing that would most accurately convey the impact of the first seven years of OBI;

  • Editing and designing many of OBI’s publications, including its biennial print magazine (examples here and here) and research reports—a few examples include We Too Belong, Moving Targets, The US Farm Bill, and Targeted Universalism.

Starting in 2020, Rachelle helped seed and manage OBI’s expansion of its work into Europe, running a yearlong pilot program with European partners at More in Common, Queen Mary University, and Sciences Po University. She continues to serve as a senior consultant to the Institute.

Prior to the Othering & Belonging Institute, Rachelle managed communications for a large international development organization with program work in Southeast Asia (East Meets West Foundation, now Thrive Networks) and managed the publications and design for a member network that supported the work of independent publishers (the Independent Press Association) during a time of extreme corporate consolidation of the media industry.

A prolific graphic and editorial designer, Rachelle has been the lead designer of dozens of projects for a number of mission-driven organizations. She is fluent with work that supports digital campaigns, including consulting on messaging, media and PR, social media toolkits, sharable graphics, presentation decks, and enewsletter development. She has worked on large-scale signage, event collateral, merchandise, and commissioned numerous illustrators and custom artwork. In 2020 she helped manage the communications for a successful progressive citycouncilmember election in the SF Bay Area.

Rachelle has degrees in political science and graphic design. A tribal member of the Caddo Nation, Rachelle was born and raised in the deep South of the United States, and splits her time between Athens, Greece and the US.

Rachelle is open for consulting work with values-aligned organizations and projects. Get in touch!