Carolyn Reyes

Carolyn was born in Miami and raised there primarily by her monolingual Cuban grandmother with a fifth-grade education, who read the newspaper cover to cover and watched “The Price is Right” daily. She fell in love with San Francisco during the semester of college she spent in the City in an Urban Studies program, and moved to the East Bay upon graduation. She has now been in the Bay Area over half her life and doesn’t think she’ll live anywhere else (although she imagines ending up in Barcelona if ever exiled from the US). Carolyn joined Family Builders in 2014, after 9 years at Legal Services for Children (LSC), where she worked as a Senior Staff Attorney and Guardianship Project Director. While at LSC, she represented children and youth in dependency, guardianship, immigration, and education matters. Additionally, she provided training and technical assistance to county agencies and other stakeholders regarding LGBTQ youth in child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Carolyn has spent over two decades working on behalf of children, youth and families in various capacities, including child welfare worker, attorney, children and family therapist, and school counselor. At Family Builders, she is the getREAL California Project Director, focusing on integrating sexual orientation and gender identity/expression-informed policy and practice into California’s child welfare system.When not at work, Carolyn can be found reading to her daughter, Kairos, eating yummy meals prepared by her wife, Yvonne, or cheering on her son, Sanjay, at a high school sporting event.