For over three decades, Kay Berkson has devoted her time and energy to organizations and civic issues advancing human rights, social justice and cultural diversity initiatives.
Kay Berkson is a social documentary photographer who has photographed in diverse Chicago communities for decades. In the 1980s, she became active in human rights work with Central American refugees who sought political asylum in the United States.
Her involvement with refugees who wanted to tell their stories led to her interest in oral history and to the idea for the Changing Worlds photography and oral history project. She began the project in 1996 in collaboration with Hibbard School and coordinated its expansion into a nonprofit organization in 2000.
Kay holds a master's in social work from the University of Chicago. She worked with families of young children and consulted to day care centers before returning to school to study photography at Columbia College.
