Featured Keynotes, Facilitators, Practitioners and Artist

kristy kumar (she, her, hers) is an experienced social justice organizer working to co-create joyful and equitable communities. She currently serves as the City of Madison’s first Equity and Social Justice Manager for the Department of Civil Rights. kumar and her team oversee a wide-ranging portfolio including the Racial Equity and Social Justice Initiative, Disability Rights and Services, Neighborhood Resource Teams, Language Access, and Environmental Justice. kumar provides leadership and strategic guidance to the Mayor, legislators, and all City departments in normalizing intersectional equity, organizing staff to work together for transformational change, and operationalizing new practices, policies, and procedures that help everyone experience wellbeing.

Her work experience includes leadership in community and youth-organizing, higher education, coalition-building, interpersonal violence prevention, and community care. She was a Fulbright Scholar in Malaysia and has worked with several organizations on anti-human trafficking efforts. kumar received her M.A. in Human Rights focusing on race, gender, and equity from the University of Denver and a B.A. in Political Science and Global Poverty and Practices from the University of California, Berkeley. She’s a proud first-generation immigrant whose passions include gleaning wisdom from her ancestors’ non-recipes, daydreaming about her next meal and who she can share it with, artistic endeavors, and enjoying nature with her partner, dog, and toddler.