Kim Lan is a nonprofit advancement professional with 20+ years of experience working at the intersection of development, marketing, and disability advocacy, and a DEIAB (diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, belonging) educator and advocate based in San Francisco, CA. Before the League, she was the chief advancement officer for an integrated Jewish Federation in Durham, North Carolina, where she was honored to amplify the mission of and fundraise for a federation — a unique family — of organizations not unlike the League's tri-federated model.
She has worked in an advisory capacity for the North Carolina Orange County Human Relations Council, the Durham Housing Authority, Duke University's undergraduate biomedical engineering students, and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, among other for- and nonprofit organizations on disability, diversity, equity, inclusion, and universal design. She is the founder of the Redefining Disabled Project, co-founder of the Accessible Icon Project — Durham, NC, and former Board member of Disability Rights North Carolina, having served as Board President (2020-2022) and former Board President (2017-2019) of Southern Documentary Fund. Kim Lan is a mother of two ‘tweens, one of whom has Type 1 Diabetes and both of whom have their mother's sense of humor, love of adventure, and appreciation of horror movies.
Kim Lan's wildest dreams were realized in 2016 when she delivered a TEDx Talk at UNC's Memorial Hall on the topic of disability inclusion and awareness, and again in 2017 when she held the role of Impact Strategist and Producer for the independent documentary film Farmer/Veteran, highlighting PTSD, transgenerational trauma, and compassion fatigue amongst post-9/11 war veterans and their families. The film earned numerous awards and accolades, including Best Documentary Feature in festivals from Brooklyn to Shanghai, and premiered on PBS' Independent Lens on Memorial Day 2017 to an audience of an estimated 1.7 million viewers.
Each day, she lives out her American Dream as the daughter of refugees, her father a Holocaust survivor and her mother a Vietnamese Boat Person, advancing the vision and mission of the national office of the League of Women Voters as their major gifts officer. She has a BA in writing from the University of San Francisco.
As an above-knee amputee, Kim Lan is an adaptive sports athlete, finding the most fun in kayaking and archery. She is an insufferable extrovert and loves to laugh.