About Katayoon (she/her)

I bring a diverse range of professional experiences that have informed my perspectives on advocacy, organizing, and grantmaking, and I have partnered with groups of all sizes -- from fiscally sponsored start-up projects to multi-million dollar nonprofits. I have worked as a direct service and civil rights litigator, policy advocate, technical assistance provider, and grantmaker, with a substantive focus in the last 15 years on youth justice and criminal justice. The common thread throughout has been a fierce commitment to advancing racial justice.

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Most recently, I was Director of Criminal Justice Initiatives at Borealis Philanthropy, overseeing a team managing two donor collaboratives that support BIPOC-led grassroots organizing groups to transform policing and pretrial justice in the criminal legal system. Previously, I served as Program Director for Youth Justice at the Public Welfare Foundation, where for 9 years I directed grantmaking to keep youth out of the adult system, dismantle the youth prison model, and advance a racially just, community-based vision of youth justice.

Before working in philanthropy, I held attorney positions the National Juvenile Defender Center, where I worked on a national initiative to ensure fairness for court-involved LGBTQ youth, and at the DC-based Children’s Law Center, where I represented youth as a guardian ad litem in child welfare cases. I started my career as a Racial Justice Project attorney at the ACLU of Northern California, working to advance educational equity for California’s public school students. In addition, I have taught as an adjunct faculty member at Howard University School of Law and American University’s Washington College of Law.

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In the Fall of 2021, I launched my consulting practice, and I have been supporting a wide range of groups as they do their critically important work to advance social and racial justice.