Surina Khan
Philanthropic Advisor & Strategist
Surina Khan (she/her) has been a leader in the philanthropic and non-profit social justice sector for more than three decades starting with community-based publishing and shifting to national and global work on an array of issues focused on gender, racial, and economic justice.
Surina has served in numerous leadership roles including as the CEO of the Women’s Foundation California, a Director in the Democracy Rights and Justice Program at the Ford Foundation, as executive director of the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission (now OutRight), and as a research analyst for Political Research Associates.
She has provided strategic direction for grantmaking approaches, program design and implementation, policy training and advocacy, communications and digital strategy, organizing convenings, meeting design and facilitation, raising multi-million dollar budgets, executive transitions, and completing successful organizational turnarounds.
In addition to the American LGBTQ+ Museum, she serves on the Board of the Mertz Gilmore Foundation. Her previous Board service includes Voices for Progress, Funders for Reproductive Equity, CalNonprofits, Funders for LGBTQ Issues, La Cocina, Alliance for Justice, Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, and Outright Action International. Surina is a widely recognized expert on gender, racial, and economic justice and a frequent commentator on the power of women’s philanthropy. Her writing and research have been published widely in print and online publications.