Kathleen is an experimental musician and composer who moves between sound, environment, and embodied practice. Born and raised in Detroit, and based in California, her site-responsive approach treats landscape as collaborator. A student of the late great Yusef Lateef, Kathleen's solo music converges vocals and violin with syncopated rhythms, paying tribute to the enduring influence of diasporic folk and roots music, while creating novel interpretations that respond to the challenges of present-day social, political, and economic dynamics. Kathleen's collaborative projects include jazz chamber ensemble LA Fog and experimental duo SheKhan. She has performed and recorded in a wide range of music and art contexts including the openings of the 2012 Whitney Biennial and the 2017 Venice Biennale in the Central Pavilion.
Kathleen is also a tenured professor of law at LMU Loyola Law School where she served as the inaugural Associate Dean of Equity & Inclusion from 2020 to 2023. She is the 2026 recipient of the Association of American Law School's Michael A. Olivas Award, for outstanding leadership in promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in the legal academy. An expert on immigrants' rights and forced labor, Kathleen's scholarship examines the Thirteenth Amendment and its relationship to immigration, workplace rights, and civil rights through the critical lens of race, gender, and class. Recent publications include Critical Immigration Legal Theory, Boston University Law Review (2024) and Feminist Judgments: Immigration Law Opinions Rewritten (Cambridge University Press, 2023). Kathleen co-founded the Loyola Anti-Racism Center and the Loyola Immigrant Justice Clinic.
Beyond music and social justice, Kathleen co-founded Human Resources Gallery in Chinatown Los Angeles to uplift emerging artists with interdisciplinary practices that integrate performance and sound as art forms. She is a board member of the arts nonprofit GYOPO and chair of the governance committee of dublab. Kathleen aspires to facilitate self-determined creative freedom for those relegated to the margins.
Kathleen and Guillermo, welcome musicians and sound artists to activate Portalis' high fidelity recording studio to manifest their creative visions while experiencing inspiration and serenity from the vitality and magic of its surrounding beauty, biodiversity, and rich history.
