Schedule and Deadlines

2026 Keynote Speaker – Dr. Karen Korematsu

Dr. Karen Korematsu is the Founder and President of the Fred T. Korematsu Institute and the daughter of the late civil rights icon, Fred Korematsu. Karen is a national speaker and travels the country advocating for civil liberties, social justice, civics, and ethnic studies education. She promotes Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution on January 30 in perpetuity for all fifty states. Karen has signed on to several amicus briefs opposing violations of constitutional rights.

Dr. Korematsu has been interviewed on radio, podcasts, and TV. Her Op/Ed’s have appeared in the NY Times and Washington Post. She has received numerous awards and honors, including the ACLU- Chief Justice Earl Warren Civil Liberties Award, the GMNY 2015 Isadore Starr Award, the NAPABA President’s Award, the Muslim Advocates-Voice of Freedom Award, and the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS) Community Leadership Award. In addition, she is a recipient of the Key to the City of Dearborn, Michigan, by the Mayor of Dearborn in 2017.

Karen is a member of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) and an Honored Member of the Council of State Social Studies Specialists (CS4). Karen is the first honorary non-lawyer member of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA), serves on the board of directors of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-AAJC, DC, and the NAPABA Law Foundation (NLF). She serves on the National Advisory Board of the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality at UC Irvine School of Law.

In June of 2021, Dr. Korematsu was appointed to serve as a State of California Education Ambassador by State Superintendent Tony Thurmond. She helped to achieve an ethnic studies course as a high school graduation requirement and continues to advocate for the same in every state across this country.  

Karen received her first honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from St. Michael’s College in Burlington, Vermont, in May 2019. She received her second honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Haverford College in Pennsylvania in May 2022.