Scholar Profile

Kathleen Gutierrez

Social Sciences Research

Biography

Kathleen graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with undergraduate degrees in public health and Southeast Asian studies. During her career in public health, she worked as a health educator in Los Angeles and later managed adolescent health programs at the California School-Based Health Alliance (CSHA), a nonprofit that advocates and offers technical assistance for the expansion of K-12 school-based health care. While at CSHA, she took an eight-month sabbatical to live in the Philippines to work as a specialist in reproductive health policy with the Gabriela Women's Partylist and the Center for Women's Resources. 

In 2013, Kathleen returned to Berkeley to complete her M.A./Ph.D. in Southeast Asian studies with a Designated Emphasis in Science and Technology Studies. Her doctoral studies and research were funded in part by U.S. Department of Education's Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need, the Social Science Research Council, the Fulbright-Hays program, The Huntington Library, and the Bentley Historical Library.

She is currently an assistant professor in the Department of History at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she teaches courses on Philippine history, modern Southeast Asia, and science and plant studies. She was a Humanities Mellon Fellow at the New York Botanical Garden and completed a residency at the Oak Spring Garden Foundation. Presently, she is the co-PI on a public history initiative documenting the history of Filipino families in Watsonville, CA.

Kathleen is a passionate supporter of labor rights, the retention of Title IX survivors on university campuses, and education in the humanities. She serves as a mentor for the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream and works to advance the representation of fellow Southeast Asian heritage scholars in the academy.

High school:  John Marshall High School

Degrees

News and Highlights

05/09/2005 Kathleen Gutierrez (MS '06)

Working for women, around the globe. This summer, Kathleen Gutierrez, MS ‘06, will travel to the Philippines for an internship with the Gabriela Political Party, a coalition of organizations whose focus is on issues of women’s and children’s rights and enacting anti-trafficking and anti-violence protections through the Philippine National Legislature.