CEO, Chief Strategist

Trystan Reese

Training - Consulting - Coaching - Writing

Trystan Reese is an award-winning author, facilitator, and coach focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion issues. He has also been organizing with the trans community for nearly two decades and has been on the frontlines of this generation’s most significant fights for LGBTQ+ justice.

An accomplished storyteller, Trystan has toured with The Moth MainStage's renowned team. The video of his Brooklyn performance garnered over 2.6 million views online, and his story was subsequently included in The Moth’s 2024 anthology, A Point Of Beauty. His storytelling has been featured in BuzzFeed, People Magazine, Cosmopolitan Magazine, CNN, and dozens of other outlets.

As a writer and author, Trystan is a Lambda Literary Fellow whose first book, How We Do Family, was released to critical acclaim in the summer of 2021. His voice can also be heard narrating the How We Do Family audiobook. He branched out with a children’s book, The Light of You, which he co-authored with his partner, Biff Chaplow. His essays have been featured in anthologies, including the Mindful Masculinity Workbook.

Trystan is also passionate about transgender fertility and co-authored a chapter on the mental health needs of transgender patients undergoing Assisted Reproductive Technology, which can be found in Cambridge University Press’ Fertility Counseling: Clinical Guide. His co-authored research on transgender competency in early childhood educators is currently going through the peer-review process and should be released in 2025.

The founder of Collaborate Consulting, Trystan provides customized training solutions for individuals, organizations, and communities interested in social justice. He has trained hundreds of medical providers on LGBTQ inclusion and delivered keynotes at dozens of conferences and convenings.

He is married to his partner Biff, and they live in Portland, Oregon, with their three kids: Riley, Sully, and Leo. They are very happy.

Trystan Reese is a globally renowned transgender educator and author, focused on building a world where all pregnant people are supported throughout their family-building experience… and beyond. After over a decade of work as a professional organizer within the LGBTQ+ community, his family’s story was featured on the parenting podcast The Longest Shortest Time and he became a lauded voice for transgender fertility, family-building, and pregnancy.
He has presented at symposia hosted by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the Society for Maternal and Fetal Medicine, the American College of Nurse Midwives, and Postpartum Support International. He has also presented at many community-led medical conferences, including the Meaningful Care Conference, the Modern Family Show, and more.
His medical and fertility clients include Sondermind Mental Health, IVIRMA Global, Cryos International, Generate Life Sciences, Doula Trainings International, Cornerstone Doula Trainings, Oregon Health Science University, the British Columbia Association of Pregnancy Outcome Professionals, Childbirth International, Circle Surrogacy, and dozens more.
He currently serves on the #ProjectFamily Global Advisory Board for Ferring Pharmaceuticals. He is a former board member of Portland’s Queer Resource Center and the Transgender Law Center. He is the founder of the online educational platform Trans Fertility Co., which reaches thousands of prospective parents every month through articles, social media posts, and recorded interviews with transgender parents.
Trystan’s published articles and papers include the following:
Trystan is also the co-author of Transgender Assisted Reproductive Technology, a chapter in Fertility Counseling: Clinical Guide (published by Cambridge University Press). This second edition of the essential guide for reproductive professionals is both a Clinical Guide and a Case Studies Guide, presenting the most current knowledge on counseling diverse patients amidst rapidly advancing modern technology.

Professional Education

Dare To Lead.

Certified Dare to Lead™ Facilitators (CDTLFs) are trained to teach the skills, practices, and tools that underpin the four skill sets of courage: Rumbling with Vulnerability, Living into Our Values, Braving Trust, and Learning to Rise. These independent facilitators offer workshops, training, and coaching to bring the Dare to Lead courage-building process into your organization.
Intercultural Development Inventory.

The Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) is an evidence-based assessment tool that measures intercultural competence at individual and organizational levels. The IDI is used in every sector across a wide range of demographics. Trystan Reese is a Qualified Administrator, certified to help individuals and groups understand their successes and challenges in areas of difference and to understand what actions they can take to effectively navigate those differences.
Somatic Abolitionism.

Trystan Reese successfully completed the 14-hour course “Foundations in Somatic Abolitionism” with Resmaa Menakem in November of 2021.
Social Justice Training Institute.

Trystan Reese successfully completed SJTI’s 5-day Professional Training, which provides racial/social justice educators and change agents with an intensive laboratory experience where they can focus on their own learning and development to increase their diversity, equity, and inclusion competencies as social justice educators.
Rockwood Leadership Institute.

Trystan Reese completed a year in Rockwood’s LGBTQ Leaders Cohort, and has also completed Rockwood’s Art of Leadership intensive. Both trainings focused on Rockwood’s six core practices: Purpose, Vision, Partnership, Resilience, Performance, and Personal Ecology.
Facilitating Cultural Change.

Trystan Reese successfully completed the Facilitating Cultural Change: Leadership for Social and System Change in 2021. This advanced multi-day leadership workshop teaches how to build transformational systemic change efforts that are intersectional, interdependent, and strategic across lines of difference.

Writing and Editing

How We Do Family.

Trystan’s first full-length book was released in June of 2021. It chronicles his unique family-building journey from overnight parenthood to transgender pregnancy. Already heralded as “An LGBTQ family’s inspiring story of building a loving home, with lessons all families can use,” How We Do Family is a loving tribute to the connection between adversity and resilience.
The Light Of You.

Trystan and his partner, Biff Chaplow, partnered to co-write this beautiful picture book illustrated by Van Binfa. The Light Of You is a family-building story featuring adoption and a seahorse papa (a trans man birth parent), told through a poem - with space for readers to add their own family stanzas!
Born Into This: A Creative Guide Through Reproductive Health.

Trystan worked with Tara Brooke and Gina Giordano to ensure that their new guide for expecting parents and providers was fully gender-inclusive, rewriting entire sections with an eye towards transgender justice and suggesting even better ways of describing bodies and experiences so a wider audience would see themselves in the guide.
Mindful Masculinity Workbook.

In this beautiful guide dedicated to healthy masculinity, Trystan’s essay on becoming a man is featured prominently alongside intensive and immersive exercises and tools for men hoping to build a new relationship with themselves and the world.