Carolyn is Policy Director at Ceres Policy Research. She came to Ceres in September 2020 from Bay Area Legal Aid (BayLegal), where she led a team providing civil legal services for youth experiencing homelessness, at risk for exploitation, and those who are system-involved. She is a national expert on issues related to LGBT youth in out-of-home care who has spent almost three decades working on behalf of marginalized children, youth and families in various capacities, including child welfare worker, children’s attorney, child and family therapist, and school counselor. Prior to her work at BayLegal, Carolyn coordinated a campaign to end conversion therapy at the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), and served as Director of getREAL California, a multi- year initiative aimed at integrating sexual orientation and gender identity/expression-informed policy and practice into California’s child welfare system. Carolyn also spent 9 years at Legal Services for Children in San Francisco, where in addition to representing children and youth in dependency, guardianship, immigration, and education matters, she coordinated two projects focused on improving services to and outcomes for LGBT
youth in child welfare and juvenile justice systems.