Photo: Kalai smiles with a friend with beautiful plants and greenery in the background.
Kalai Ross (she/her/hers) is the kind of person who loves all things sharing—whether it’s sharing a meal, sharing a laugh, sharing culture through travel, or sharing knowledge and “nerding out” with someone. At the heart of this love of sharing is Kalai’s deep hunger for knowledge borne out of a pivotal aspect of her identity: being transracially adopted—meaning being adopted by parents of a different race.
Originally born in India, Kalai was adopted when she was 3 years old and raised in Washington—first in Puyallup and then in Maple Valley.
“Being transracially adopted is pivotal to everything. There are so many intersectional identities you hold that you don’t get to have answers for. It’s the whole reason I had the major in college that I did, in humanities and social sciences, to understand the bigger powers at play. And it’s the reason I’m so hungry for knowledge,” Kalai shared.
It’s also a key part of the reason Kalai was motivated to become an Events Associate at Inatai Foundation, a role centered around sharing in itself—of ideas and resources among Inatai’s grantees.
“The first part of power-building is physically getting people together. Events allow for the exchange of knowledge, ideas, resource support, and conversations around power-building and how we can make Washington more equitable,” Kalai elaborated.
As an Events Associate, Kalai will provide logistics and coordination for events across the foundation that support Inatai’s learning agenda. She will also manage the use of the foundation’s Seattle conference rooms by grantee and values-aligned organizations.
Kalai brings seven years of experience in project and program coordination, process improvement, and stakeholder engagement to Inatai. In her previous roles at Amazon, first as a Recruiting Coordinator and then as a Recruiting Operations Specialist, she managed the interview process for job candidates and led the onboarding experiences for more than 100 new hires. Adept at managing logistics, data integrity, and onboarding for large organizations, Kalai is committed to leveraging these skills in the name of equity and racial justice at Inatai.
“I’m excited to provide the resources that make connecting with people more fun, like food, so all grantee leaders have to do is focus on being the experts in their craft.”
