The interACT Board

Niki is a femme, intersex and POC with mid-length, cropped dark hair with red highlights. She wears a red shirt and smiles into the camera.

Co-President | Niki Khanna, MA, MFT (she/her)
San Francisco, CA

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.

Co-President | Catherine Clune-Taylor, PhD (she/her)
San Diego, CA

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 Women’s Studies at San Diego State 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 work by feminist science scholars and bioethicists on the management of intersex conditions in children eventually led her to follow a different trajectory. After earning her PhD in Philosophy at the University of Alberta with a dissertation studying the science, ethics, and politics underwriting the treatment of intersex children under the “disorders of sex development” treatment model, Catherine held a Postdoctoral Research Associate position in the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies at Princeton University from 2016-2019.  She teaches intersectional feminist courses on sex, gender, sexuality, medicine, science, and technology studies to undergraduates.

Clune-Taylor has published articles on intersex management in PhaenEx: Journal of Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture, and Hypatia, as well as articles in the American Journal of Public Health. She is currently working on a book examing the biopolitical management of gender in the present, focusing specifically on medical, bureaucratic, legal, and political efforts – including intersex management – to secure what she calls “cisgendered futures,” referring to an abstract trajectory of development across the lifespan in which multiple sex and gender variables remain in “coherent” alignment. In 2018/2019 she served as president for the Canadian Society of Women in Philosophy (CSWIP). She is honored to join the board of interACT as of January 2020.

Keely is a light skinned woman with blue eyes and red hair in a red suit. She grins widely into the camera.

Vice President | Keely Bosn (she/her)
Ann Arbor, Michigan

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.

Axel is a light-skinned nonbinary person with brown, long hair and facial hair. They stand at an NYU podium smiling.

Secretary | Axel Keating (they/them)
New York, NY

Axel Keating is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Early Stage Researcher in the Intersex – New Interdisciplinary Approaches (INIA) innovative training network and a PhD student at the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University. They are researching the education on intersex traits and variations of sex characteristics, the experiences of intersex students and students with variations of sex characteristics, and the knowledge and perception of intersex traits and variations of sex characteristics by those in Irish and Swedish schools.

They are a board member of interACT Advocates for Intersex Youth, an organising committee member for the 5th International Intersex Forum, and a volunteer at ShoutOut.

Axel has developed and facilitated workshops on sex characteristics, gender, and sexuality at conferences and academic institutions for over a decade. They have also provided consultations on 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 has a Master’s degree from the New York University Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development in Educational Leadership, Politics, and Advocacy. Their capstone project was on the experiences of transgender, non-binary, and gender-expansive students in the United States with a focus on New York State. Their Bachelor’s degree is from the NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study with a concentration in the history and philosophy of medicine and a minor in American Sign Language. Their senior colloquium focused on the history of intersex people from antiquity to today, and their senior thesis discussed the rise of medicalization and change in discourse around intersex bodies in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

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.

Matthew Shack is a white man with short brown hair in a suit, smiling at the camera

Treasurer | Matthew Shack, CFA (he/him)
New York, NY

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.

Bonnie is a light-skinned woman with long grey hair and brown eyes. She smiles into the camera in a close-up photo.

Bonnie Scranton, LCSW, CST, CSE (she/her)
West Hartford, CT

Bonnie is a licensed clinical social worker and AASECT certified Sex Therapist and Sexual Health Educator who has worked in a variety of clinical settings, including community mental health teams, partial hospital programs, college counseling centers and secondary schools.  She currently works full time in private practice, primarily with individuals and couples, and develops educational programming for schools and organizations around sex education and relational wellness.  She received her BA in Anthropology from Oberlin College and her MSW from Smith College, and is a graduate of the University of Michigan Sexual Health Certificate Program. As a certified Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction practitioner and teacher, much of her work incorporates principles of presence, intention, and non-judgmental observation.

In her role as the mental health clinician on a multidisciplinary team at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford, Bonnie serves the psychosocial needs of families and children with a range of intersex traits and offers connections to peer support communities.  She is the proud mother of an adult daughter who is intersex and is honored to welcome and support families in ensuring the right of every child to an open future.

Ilene is a woman with olive skin and dark black, straight hair. She wears a red shirt and smiles into the camera in a close-up shot.

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

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 is a white man with short, brown hair in a grey shirt with a short beard. He looks serious but smiling.

Kyle Knight (he/him)
San Francisco, CA

Kyle Knight is a board member at interACT and senior researcher on health and LGBT rights at Human Rights Watch. Previously 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), reporting from Burma, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Indonesia. He has worked for UNAIDS, the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, and in the children’s rights and health and human rights divisions at Human Rights Watch. 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.

Banti Jaswal (they/them)
New London, CT

Banti is about to graduate from Connecticut College. They have been a youth member of interACT for the past 7 years. They are also a former Board Member of InterConnect, and have been involved in advocacy, education and peer support for several years. They have also worked with PFLAG and GLSEN as a speaker and volunteer. They love being an advocate for greater understanding and acceptance of Intersex people.

Emeritus Board Members

interACT is forever grateful for the people who helped move our organization to new heights!

Mani is a queer, intersex and nonbinary person. They wear a brown hat and sit with their head in their hands, smiling at the camera.

Mani Bruce Mitchell (they/them)
Wellington, New Zealand

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 is a light-skinned woman with dark, curly hair and red lipstick with decorative earrings. She smiles at the camera.

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

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.