Speakers

Katie Carter has been working working within social change organizations and philanthropy for the past 15 years, with a particular focus on LGBTQ+, racial, and gender justice. Originally from the Midwest, she moved to Portland, Oregon in 2008 to contribute her passion for social change with her skills in organizational development, fundraising, communications, and strategy. In 2019, she relocated to Seattle to become the CEO of Pride Foundation after being on staff for 5 years. In her role as CEO, Katie supports the foundation’s efforts by building community and institutional partnerships, developing creative communications strategies, and mobilizing resources to affect […]

Surina Khan is CEO of Women’s Foundation California, where she leads the Foundation’s work to advance gender, racial, and economic justice. The Foundation’s program strategy is focused on building community-based power through investing in nonprofit organizations, training community leaders in policy advocacy, connecting key partners, and mobilizing significant financial resources. For more than three decades, Surina has been a leader in the philanthropic and nonprofit social justice sector starting with local community-based publishing in New England and then shifting to national and global work on an array of social justice issues including gender justice, LGBT rights, human rights, and democratic […]

Imara, whose work has won Emmy and Peabody Awards, is the creator of Translash Media, a cross-platform journalism, personal storytelling and narrative project, which produces content to shift the current culture of hostility towards transgender people in the US. As part of her work at TransLash, lmara hosts the WEBBY-nominated “TransLash Podcast with Imara Jones,” as well as the investigative, limited series, “The Anti-Trans Hate Machine: A Plot Against Equality.” This year Politico named her as one of the 40 power players at the intersection of race, politics, and policy. In 2020 Imara was featured on the cover of Time […]

Alex (he/him) joined Funders for LGBTQ Issues in 2017 as the inaugural Program Director for its Grantmakers United for Trans Communities (GUTC) initiative. As a community organizer and attorney, Alex was the founding Executive Director of the Transgender, Gender Variant, and Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP), a San Francisco-based organization of transgender, gender-variant and intersex people, inside and outside of prisons, jails, and detention centers, working to create a united family in the struggle for survival and freedom. Prior to joining Funders, Alex was a public interest career counselor at UC Berkeley School of Law. He has also served on the […]