President | Catherine Clune-Taylor, PhD (she/her)

Catherine Clune-Taylor is a feminist scientist and technology studies scholar. She was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Duke University. Catherine initially planned to go to medical school, receiving a Bachelor of Medical Science in Immunology and Microbiology from The University of Western Ontario. However, a chance encounter with work by feminist science scholars and bioethicists on the management of intersex conditions in children eventually led her to follow a different trajectory. Clune-Taylor earned a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Alberta and has held a Postdoctoral Research Associate position in the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies at Princeton University, as well as Assistant Professor positions at both San Diego State University and Princeton University. She teaches intersectional feminist courses on sex, gender, sexuality, bioethics, medicine, and science, and technology studies. Her book, Securing Autonomously Gendered Futures: A Feminist Philosophical Defense of Intersex and Trans Kids is under contract with Duke University Press. She has published articles on intersex cases in PhaenEx: Journal of Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture, Hypatia, and Bioethics.

Vice President | Niki Khanna, MA, MFT (she/her)

Niki Khanna is a psychotherapist and educator in the San Francisco Bay Area, Her focus is working within the Queer, Trans and Intersex communities. She is also a certified Sexual Health Educator and has spent over 20 years working in Sex Education, Sexual Assault and Rape Prevention Education as well as Intimate Partner Violence Prevention Education. She identifies as a Femme, Intersex, and POC. She is passionate about finding ways to use the skills she has developed to contribute to the Intersex community. She provides workshops and mental health support to the AIS-DSD Support Group/ InterConnect. Before joining the board, she also provided mental health consultation to interAct. Her current projects are developing practical training modules for mental health providers working with intersex clients and their families and writing/editing a chapter focused on Intersex for a forthcoming textbook on trauma within the LGBTIAQ+ communities.

Secretary | Axel (he/they)

Axel has been involved in LGBTQIA+ activism and community organizing, particularly in intersex, trans, non-binary, and bi+ communities, for nearly 15 years. He has been involved with interACT Advocates for Intersex Youth, first as a youth member and then as a board member, since 2015. He has developed and facilitated trainings and workshops on sex characteristics, gender, sexuality, and disability at conferences and academic institutions for over a decade as well as has provided consultations on education policy, national and international reports, research studies, curriculum development, youth program strategies, comprehensive sexual health education programs, and sensitivity readings for individuals, schools, colleges and universities, non-profits, non-governmental organizations, intergovernmental organizations, and more. Axel works in higher education disability student services and supervises a disability cultural center.

Intersex youth are the future. Through interACT, we can see the power of youth organizing and experiences. I’m proud to be working with interACT to fight for the legal and human rights of intersex young people.

Keely Bosn (she/her)

As a parent to an intersex child diagnosed with both Klinefelter’s syndrome and ambiguous genitalia, Keely Bosn and her family spent several years actively learning about the intersex community and the continued lack of intersex bodily autonomy. During her research, interACT has been a critical resource and an ongoing support network – providing information and guidance to help navigate the challenges associated with raising an intersex child in the US under our current policies and procedures. Seeing the dedication of interACT’s staff and the impact the organization has had, Keely wanted to find ways to assist with raising awareness and advocating for intersex youth around the world. She joined the board in early 2022 in hopes of bringing further changes to our society expectations of a gender binary and to push for the ban of surgical interventions without individual consent.

Outside of the board, Keely is a US Navy veteran serving on two Middle East deployments. She earned her BS in Mechanical Engineering as well as a dual-degree MBA and MS from the University of Michigan Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise. She currently works as a Strategy Manager of future vehicle and technology programs at General Motors and is an avid member of the company’s LGBTQI+ Employee Resource Group where she speaks often on the topics of intersex advocation, awareness, training, and allyship. She hopes to help provide a voice to intersex employees at GM and to drive company policy changes while promoting acceptance and understanding.

Matthew Shack, CFA (he/him)

Matthew Shack is a board member at interACT and the Global Asset Owner Business Manager for the Asset Servicing and Digital business at BNY Mellon. In this role he is part of the Segment leadership team and helps to define and deliver on strategic initiatives, partner with other leaders on growth plans, and is critical for driving analysis, process improvement and controls. 

Prior to joining the Business Management team, he was a Client Executive for eight years within BNY Mellon’s Global Client Management division and had responsibility for overall revenue growth and existing business retention for a portfolio of the firm’s largest clients. Matthew has over 14 years of experience across various financial services roles in both New York City and London. He started his career in Private Wealth Management as an analyst with AXA Advisors.

Matthew received his B.B.A in 2007 from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University and received his M.B.A in 2010 from the Hough Graduate School of Business at the University of Florida. He also earned his CFA designation in 2018.

I.W. Gregorio, MD (she/her)

I.W. Gregorio is a general urologist in the Greater Philadelphia Area and young adult author. After graduating from Yale School of Medicine, she did her urology residency at Stanford Hospital and Clinics, where she met the intersex patient who inspired her debut novel, None of the Above (Balzer & Bray / HarperCollins). None of the Above was a Lambda Literary Award Finalist, a Publishers Weekly Flying Start and is under development as a TV series by Davis Entertainment and Stephen Chbosky, with Liz Maccie as screenwriter. It was also an ALA Booklist Top Ten Sports Book for Youth, a 2015 ABC Children’s Group Best Book for Young Readers, and recognized by the American Library Association Rainbow List, in addition to garnering mention in outlets including the Huffington Post, MTV, TeenVogue, USA Today, Bustle and PopCrush,

Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Newsweek, Scientific American, New York Daily News, San Jose Mercury News and Journal of General Internal Medicine. She is a founding member of We Need Diverse Books™ and served as its VP of Development. Find her online at www.iwgregorio.com, and on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and Instagram at @iwgregorio.

My past few years of intersex advocacy have been the most rewarding in my career. In events across the country, two things have become apparent: how badly awareness is needed, and people’s willingness to learn. Every presentation I give, I give so that the intersex youth of tomorrow don’t have to live with the shame and stigma that so many have survived.

Kyle Knight (he/him)

Kyle Knight is an adjunct public health professor at the University of San Francisco and graduate student in the nursing program there. Previously, he was Associate Director for global health and LGBT rights at Human Rights Watch. Before that, he was a fellow at the Williams Institute of the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law, and a Fulbright scholar in Nepal. As a journalist he worked for Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Nepal and for the UN’s humanitarian news service (IRIN) covering South and Southeast Asia. He has worked for UNAIDS and the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice. He sits on the editorial board of the Annals of LGBTQ Public and Population Health Journal. He has a BA in cultural anthropology from Duke University and a Masters of Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Justin Tsang (He/They)

Justin Tsang is a Transportation Planner and passionate activist for disability and intersex rights. He also currently serves on the Board of Directors for the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) and The Kelsey, focusing on disability rights and housing policy. 

In Summer 2021, as former Research Director for the Asian Americans with Disabilities Initiative (AADI), Justin pioneered the first community resource guide for disabled Asian Americans. In the process, he discovered the intersex community through Tiffany Yu’s podcast featuring Intersex Activist Alicia Roth Weigel. After connecting with Club Intersex through the LA LGBT Center, he came out publicly as an intersex person on Intersex Awareness Day in 2021. On that same day, he participated in the first-of-its-kind White House Roundtable on Intersex Awareness Day, where they made recommendations against non-consensual intersex surgeries alongside intersex activists.

Since 2022, Justin quickly emerged as a recognized leader in the intersex community, speaking at numerous venues, including various medical schools through the Intersex Justice Project, the LA LGBT Center, LA Public Library, UCLA, and Blume Kind’s Interesting & SeXY podcast. His advocacy work has been featured in Teen Vogue, The Independent, Florida Today, the Kansas City Star, and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). 

As an Asian American intersex person, Justin is proud to work alongside BIPOC intersex activists on a global level. Recognizing cultural, familial, and generational differences, Justin challenges the norms to bring acceptance, self-love, and the fight for bodily autonomy.

Jahni Leggett (she/her)

Jahni Leggett is a Black intersex and trans storyteller born and raised in the Greater Seattle area. Jahni graduated from The Evergreen State College with a bachelor’s degree in Biology with an emphasis in Culture, Gender and sexuality studies. Since joining interACT as a youth member in late 2016, she has had the honor to be a part of so many experiences and invaluable opportunities – many of which have played a pivotal role in her development, not only as an advocate, but also who she has become today. (Thank you to the many incredible intersex leaders and community members for all of your care and support!)

Jahni’s advocacy began focused on protecting intersex children and babies from unnecessary medical intervention, but has grown to building a better understanding of the embodiment of intersex across global cultural communities. This led her to begin giving presentations on college campuses across the U.S. As she connected with more intersex people, it became clear that internal community building, cross cultural solidarity, and communicating diverse experiences are an integral part of the puzzle for multifaceted systems change. By championing youth empowerment, resource accessibility, and inclusion, she hopes to uplift the experiences of Intersex people, especially people of color, in which many experiences are overshadowed and erased.

Jahni is a former HRC Youth Ambassador and GLAAD Campus Ambassador who has been featured in a variety of media ranging from blogs, podcasts, and youtube videos to publications like Teen Vogue and The Washington Post. Her current work as the Communications manager for a small youth-serving nonprofit has reaffirmed her belief that accessible communication via storytelling is a powerful tool that can inspire, educate, and liberate. She dreams of a time when people are able to embody who they know themselves to be, advocate for their needs, and receive the support necessary to thrive.

Mani Bruce Mitchell (they/them)

I have been a queer-identified person all my adult life, came out as an intersex person 25 years ago, see myself as a non-binary person, living outside the traditional male-female paradigm. A teacher – educator, (trained at Waikato University) natural disaster manager (specialising in trauma – attended the Loma Prieta earthquake in San Francisco 1989) and for the last 20 years a counselor and Executive Director of Intersex Awareness – Intersex Trust Aotearoa New Zealand. I have been involved in the production of a number of documentaries about intersex issues was a participant in the 1996 ISNA video Hermaphrodites Speak and narrated the award-winning film intersexion. I am currently working on a project raising awareness with service providers of issues faced by our lgbti youth accessing safe and appropriate care from health services.

Working with Dr. Jeanie Douche on a research project looking at the impact of early genital (normalizing surgery) on a child – a first person narrative. I have run and assisted with the running of residential workshops in NZ, Australia, and America. Was a member of the ilga organising committee for the International Intersex Forum held in Malta in 2013. I currently serve with pride on the boards of ITANZ, ilga Oceania, and AIC. I am a passionate fighter of planet earth, marginal communities, and human rights, justice, and changes to the medical model for intersex people.

It has been one of my absolute privileges to be involved in and part of interACT. We do and are making a difference.

It has been one of my absolute privileges to be involved in and part of interACT. We do and are making a difference.

Arlene Baratz, MD (she/her)
Chair, Medical Research & Policy Committee

Arlene is a physician and mother of a family affected by Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (CAIS). She has 25 years of experience in women’s health care as a practicing breast radiologist. She and her daughter Katie, the first young person to speak openly about living with AIS, appeared on Oprah’s 2007 Growing Up Intersex. Her family is also featured in the 2011 BBC documentary Me, My Sex, and I.

A long-time board member and medical and family adviser to the AIS-DSD Support Group, and moderator of the AIS-DSD Parents Group, Arlene is a contributor to the first website created specifically for families, www.DSDFamilies.org. Arlene is a community advocate for both of the 2 DSD research projects currently funded by NIH: she is a consultant for Short-term Outcomes of Intervention for Reproductive Dysfunction, and a member of the Advisory Advocacy Network for the DSD-TRN: Disorders of Sex Development- Translational Research Network. A founding member of Accord Alliance, aligning stakeholders to promote collaborative care focused on well-being, she contributed to the 2006 Clinical Guidelines for the Management of Disorders of Sex Development in Childhood and Handbook for Parents. She and Katie, now a practicing psychiatrist at the University of Pennsylvania, co-chair the Patient Perspectives/Peer Support Committee for a new global endeavor to update the 2006 Consensus Statement and the treatment of people living with diverse reproductive development. Arlene chaired the Advocacy/ Education committee for Guidelines for the Development of Comprehensive Care Centers for Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia: Guidance from the CARES Foundation Initiative (IJPE), published in 2011.

Involved in interACT from its earliest days, Arlene is deeply committed to promoting the well-being and human rights of intersex people.

interACT educates people about medical issues in a human rights context. I’m grateful to be able to offer that human rights perspective in discussions of informed decision-making and patient-centered care.

Julie Greenberg (she/her)

Professor Emerita Julie A. Greenberg is an undisputed legal pioneer in the area of intersex civil rights, and an internationally recognized expert on legal issues relating to intersex status, gender, sex, sexual identity and sexual orientation. Her involvement with interACT predates the organization itself; she was a trusted advisor to interACT’s founder, Anne Tamar-Mattis, and a collaborator on the development of the innovative legal and policy approaches to intersex rights upon which interACT was founded. Professor Greenberg also holds the distinction of having been the organization’s longest-serving board member, having served from interACT’s founding to spring 2023. 

Professor Greenberg joined the Thomas Jefferson School of Law Faculty in 1990 and served as Associate Dean for Faculty Development from 2003 to 2005. Her work has been cited by multiple state and federal courts, as well as courts abroad. She has been quoted in hundreds of books and articles, and she has spoken at dozens of national and international conferences on the subject. Her book, Intersexuality and the Law: Why Sex Matters provides an invaluable description, analysis, and critique of how people with intersex variations are treated under existing legal regimes, and it received the 2013 Bullough Book award for the most distinguished book written for the professional sexological community.

Even as a person without intersex traits, Julie Greenberg took on intersex rights as her own personal fight and quickly became one of our community’s fiercest allies. Her passion was sparked by lawyer Sherri Groveman Morris, an intersex woman and former student of Professor Greenberg’s who founded the InterConnect support group. Sherri bravely shared her own intersex status, educated her professor on intersex people’s experiences, and lamented the lack of inquiry into the legal aspects of issues affecting intersex people – and Professor Greenberg took up the call so intently that advancing the rights of intersex people became her life’s work. We are forever grateful.

It started out as an intriguing legal and policy issue and then it became an issue of the heart… It’s become a part of who I am.