For purpose-driven teams and leaders
Define and tell your story
We treat communications as a strategic asset — not an afterthought.
Catalyst Narratives is a strategic communications and storytelling consultancy for purpose-driven organizations, businesses, and leaders who want to communicate their impact.
What Makes Catalyst Narratives Different
We Have An Insider’s Perspective
We've led strategy and communications from inside the institutions we now advise. This has given us a unique, well-rounded insider’s perspective of complex systems, your pain points and priorities, and how communications is a core strategic asset that defines strategy and accelerates growth.
We Focus on Meaningful Data and Measurement
Our approach to storytelling is as analytical as it is creative. We believe every message must be anchored in evidence, connecting data, outcomes, and human experience to build credibility and influence. But we take it further, treating data as a creative material: extracting meaning from complexity, and turning numbers into narrative and understanding so they reflect transformation and inspire action. In collaboration with expert data analysts, we ensure you're tracking what actually matters so your story is built on impact, not just outputs.
We Have Local Roots with a Global Perspective
We combine deep local knowledge with extensive experience working within global donor, government, and institutional environments. We understand the region’s cultural, social, and professional landscape, and how to translate that context for international audiences and standards.
Alongside this, we’ve built a trusted network of world-class local creatives and specialists, from filmmakers and designers to journalists, brand strategists, and data experts, curated to match each client’s goals and audiences.
The result is work that is culturally grounded, locally informed, and globally competitive, while strengthening the local creative economy.
Services
Whether you need high quality storytelling content, a streamlined communications strategy or want to build the capacity of your team, these services provide practical, strategic support designed to meet you where you are.
Narrative Clarity
Stop struggling to explain what you do & why it matters
Communications Strategy
Leave reactive, ad-hoc communications behind
Communications - MEL Alignment
Track what matters & give credibility to your story.
Ongoing Communications Advisory
Continued partnership to implement your strategy
Capacity Building for Communicators
Building the skills of in-house staff & independent communicators
Thought Leadership & Visibility
Elevate your public voice, visibility, & influence
Strategic Content & Storytelling
High quality content to bring your narrative to life
Founder & Director
Sonia Gloss is a strategic communications advisor with 15 years of experience working at the intersection of strategy and storytelling.
Her career spans senior leadership roles overseeing strategic communications and operations for large-scale global development portfolios to building enterprises in the creative economy. She has advised and worked alongside governments, non-profits, multilateral institutions, communities and private sector partners to strengthen their strategies and storytelling. Most recently, Sonia served as Director of Strategic Operations for USAID’s $600M economic growth portfolio in East Africa, where she oversaw communications, monitoring, evaluation and learning, finance and organizational development.
Today, through Catalyst Narratives, Sonia works with purpose-driven organizations, businesses, and leaders who are scaling, evolving, or preparing for pivotal moments — helping them communicate with clarity, confidence, and credibility.
Sonia holds an MA in Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University and a BA in African Studies from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. You can read more on Linkedin.
Experience and Engagements
Through senior leadership roles and current advisory engagements, Sonia Gloss has advised organizations and businesses including:
Testimonials
Andrew Zerzan
Deputy Regional Director, British Council
During a massive, multi-country restructure and strategy reset, it would have been easy to lose our communications’ focus. Sonia provided us with tools, advice and deep experience that kept our messaging on-point. She also helped us build in impact measurement into our regional and country-level communications so we could tweak our approach to be maximally effective. She’s an outstanding senior advisor that I would recommend to anyone with complex communications strategy challenges.
Rocky Gambo
Owner, Swahili Chic Interiors
Working with Sonia transformed how we tell our story. She helped us go from an unknown local brand to gaining global recognition in leading design and travel publications. She helped us articulate not just what our business creates, but why it matters - to our customers, our artisans, and the broader creative economy, resulting in exceptional growth and sales. Her approach to storytelling is a strategic asset for any business.
Matthew Hutcherson
Economic Growth Director, USAID
Sonia has a rare ability to bring clarity to complexity. She distilled our large, technically diverse portfolio into a clear, compelling narrative that teams across the organization could actually use. That narrative became the foundation for our communications strategy and reshaped how we measured success, ensuring our programs, messaging, and evidence were fully aligned. As a result, we were able to secure millions of dollars in additional resources and stronger buy-in from both government and private-sector partners, enabling us to achieve our strategic objectives as the largest donor in the region.