Meet Kat Schuett a.k.a “The Hub”
Award-winning, Internationally-published Health and Sustainability Journalist
Chief Enlightenment Officer (CEO) & Editorial Director of The Better World Hub
"Hostest with the Mostest" of Party for a Better World

 Hello! As a journalist, I always want to know the story behind a company or organization, so here is a bit of mine…

The Search for Something Better. Like many of you, I started my journey toward The Better World Hub because I had a lot of questions and I knew there had to be better answers out there somewhere. 

Growing up in in the farmlands of Iowa, I decided to become a doctor because I wanted to help people. Then, less than a semester away from completing my pre-med requirements, I had a life changing talk with a med student. He was trying to commit to memory a plethora of possible prescription drug side effects. I thought to myself, there has to be better way to help the world.

I had a lot of questions…so I changed my area of study to something that was all about asking questions—journalism. I also switched my science focus from treating symptoms to preventing illness, and ended up with a double major in journalism and health promotion.

The Power of the Written Word. Over the past 15+ years I have written on the topics of health and sustainability for some of the most well known publications in the world ranging from National Geographic, Ladies Home Journal and Better Homes and Gardens (the second largest magazine in the nation) to Common Ground, Real Food and Diabetic Living. I have won some big awards including Mintel’s Rising Star award and the highly esteemed William Randolph Hearst Award for Excellence in Journalism.

The article that won the Hearst award was the first on Automated External Defibrillators, or the little life saving machines called “AEDs.” You see them everywhere now—gyms, airplanes, malls—but when I wrote the article for Better Homes and Gardens, they had just been developed. At that time over 500,000 people a year were dying unnecessarily because they didn’t have easy access to these machines. After the article was published, I received letters from people across the United States saying that they had used my article to help raise money to buy AEDs for the their communities. It was then I realized that by educating people on important issues I could save many more lives than I ever could have saved in my entire career as a doctor. 

       "It was then I realized that by educating people on important issues I could save many more lives than I ever could have saved in my entire career as a doctor."

From AEDs to Organic Agriculture (and a VW Campervan). Since then, I have been the editor of three magazines, including one that went out worldwide to the leaders of the organic movement. Through this magazine, I traveled the world interviewing leaders of sustainable agriculture ranging from CEOs of organic companies to senators and representatives of the UN, WHO and USDA. But the best part was seeing how organic brought new life to farmers and communities around the world. I danced with quinoa farmers in Peru to celebrate harvest time. I taught orphans in Columbia how to grow an organic garden. I helped educate farmers about GMOs in Thailand. My work became less of a j-o-b and more of a passion. And then in 2012, I was asked to help spread the word about Prop 37—the first Right to Know Initiative to label genetically engineered organisms (GMOs) in the United States. So I bought a VW Campervan (see photo above) and I traveled the state of California for five months working with the grassroots movement to help raise awareness about GMOs.

All these experiences opened up my eyes to how broken our world really was--and more importantly, how we could fix it. 

Building a Better World. In order to make a big impact, we need to work together to inspire and educate others, and GROW the conscious community. So I combined my journalism/storytelling background and my love for bringing people together (thus earning me the nickname “the hub”) and I founded The Better World Hub.

Today my mission is to investigate sustainable solutions to the issues we face today, bring together all the people and organizations who are working to make the world a better place—and share them with you through the Better World Hub and local community events we call “Party for a Better World.” My second mission is to empower community leaders so that you can help grow this movement in your communities! Thank you for joining us! As we continue to build this community of informed citizens, passionate community leaders, mission-driven organizations —TOGETHER we can create a healthier, happier, greener, BETTER world!