Katrina Spade

Death care Innovation

Katrina is a designer and the inventor of a system that transforms the dead into soil (aka human composting). In 2017, Katrina founded Recompose, a public benefit corporation, with the goal of offering earth-centric, participatory, and meaningful death care. Recompose has led the successful legalization of human composting in Washington State, Oregon, and Colorado. In 2020, Recompose began offering the service of human composting to the public.

Katrina and her team have been featured in Fast Company, NPR, the Atlantic, BBC, Harper’s Magazine, and the New York Times. She is an Echoing Green Fellow, an Ashoka fellow, and a Harvard Kennedy School Visiting Social Innovator.