Kathy Tran is a senior policy analyst with CLASP’s youth policy team, with a focus on education equity, workforce development, community organizing, youth participatory action research, and Opportunity Youth.

Prior to joining CLASP, Kathy worked on a variety of education issues in California. After college, Kathy returned to work at the local non-profit organization in her hometown where she was a community organizer as a young person.

She worked at OC Human Relations helping coordinate the BRIDGES campus climate youth program in public schools throughout Orange County, California. She worked there alongside youth, teachers, and district leaders to build more safe, inclusive, and equitable campus climate systems. She is passionate about creating equitable education opportunities that allow all young people to flourish and strongly believes young people should be able to thrive in the communities they grew up in.

After graduating from the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HSGE), Kathy was an HGSE Dean’s Education Fellow with the Detroit Public Schools Community District. In that role, she worked with the Partnerships & Innovation office to create a tool to connect families and direct services resources.

Kathy holds a Master of Education Policy and Management from HSGE. As a graduate student, she helped lead a team of 2 Sadie Nash youth leaders on a Youth Participatory Action project to research the role high schools have on youth activism. She also received her Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and Asian American studies, with a minor in education from the University of California, Berkeley.