Surina Khan

Surina Khan is Chief Executive Officer of the Women’s Foundation of California, a publicly-supported foundation that works to increase the economic security of low-income women and families so that all California communities can thrive.

For more than 20 years Surina has worked as a leader in philanthropy, women's rights, gender justice and LGBT rights. Until August 2014, she was at Ford Foundation working as Director in the Democracy Rights and Justice Program and prior to that as Director of Gender Rights and Equality.

Earlier in her career, Surina served as Vice President of Programs at the Women's Foundation of California providing strategic direction for grantmaking and overseeing the Women’s Policy Institute, a renowned policy advocacy training program for community leaders. She also served as executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, and as a research analyst for Political Research Associates.

In 2010 she was named the Regents’ Lecturer in the Community Studies Department at the University of California Santa Cruz. She has been published widely in print and online publications, including Stanford Social Innovation Review.

She served as a board member for the Funders Network for Population, Reproductive Health and Rights and the Astraea Foundation. She was also a steering committee member of the Los Angeles chapter of Asian American Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy; a member of the advisory council of the National Center for Lesbian Rights; and on the National Advisory Council of the Lesbian Health & Research Center, University of California, San Francisco.