Board of Directors

Karyl E. Ketchum, Ph.D., is a Professor and the Department Chair of Women, Gender, and Queer Studies at California State University, Fullerton. She is also a Senator representing the Humanities and Social Sciences in the CSUF Academic Senate. Professor Ketchum received both her MA and her Ph.D. in Cultural Studies from the University of California, Davis. She has published internationally in some of the most influential academic journals in her field. Her book, Gender Diversity and LGBTQ Inclusion in K-12 Schools: A Guide to Supporting Students, Changing Lives (Routledge), is a first resource for educators interested in creating schools that are responsive to the needs of women and LGBTQIA+ students.

Her work has, for decades, focused on creating institutions and systems attuned to the needs of minoritized and historically marginalized groups. Toward this end she routinely acts as a pro bono expert witness for women and LGBTQIA+ refugees seeking asylum in the U.S. and created and implemented a national training program for Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officers working with these same asylum seekers. In her role as a founding member and President of the Orange County Equality Coalition School Compliance Task Force, she led a class action lawsuit against the California Dept of Education for their mishandling of complaints of discrimination by California public school students. She has also received special commissions and grants from the American Psychological Association and from the California Department of Mental Health.

Professor Ketchum has held multiple community leadership positions, including as an advisor to Chapman University's Center for Global Law and Development - LGBTQ Rights and Feminism Division, on the Executive Board for The Orange County Equality Coalition, and for The LGBT Center of Orange County. Dr. Ketchum is a reviewer for The M. Katherine Baird Darmer Equality Scholarship for law students. Her awards include Planned Parenthood of California's Advocacy Award, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California Vern Bulloughs Social Justice Award, the Rich Cook Community Bridge Award, the Orange County Lavender Bar Association Equality Award, the OCEC Excellence in Leadership Award, and the Women for Orange County Social Justice Award.