Robyn Ochs, Ed.M. is a speaker, educator, and consultant on issues related to sexual orientation, gender, and identity through an interdisciplinary and intersectional lens.
About Robyn Ochs
Formal Education
B.A., Language and Culture (Latin American Studies), State University of New York, Purchase
C.S.S., Administration and Management, Harvard University
Ed.M., Harvard University
Non-degree coursework in Psychology, Epidemiology, and Social Movements at Harvard University, The Kennedy School of Government, and Pace University
Public Speaking
Robyn has spoken at more than 500 colleges, universities, conferences workplaces, and public events in Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, the United Kingdom (England, Scotland and Wales), France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Peru, the Philippines, Portugal, Sweden, and the United States.
Conference Keynotes include: Bay Area Youth Summit; the BECAUSE Conference; Campus Pride Summer Leadership Camp; Big XII LGBTQIA & Allies Summit; Central States Communication Professionals Association Conference; Common Threads Youth Empowerment Retreat; European Bisexual Conference; European Bisexual Research Conference; Harvard Gender & Sexuality Convening; International Conference on Bisexuality; IvyQ Conference; LGBTQ+ Elders in an Ever-Changing World; Mid-Atlantic LGBTQA Conference; Midwest Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender & Asexual/Ally College Conference; the Northeast LGBT Campus Conference, North American Conference on Bisexuality; Out & Equal Workplace Summit, Out on the Prairie; Out in the Middle of the Wheatfield; Out on the Palouse, Pink Mountain Conference; PrideWorks for Youth; SUNY Pride Conference; True Colors Conference, UK BiCon; BiForum (Sweden); Biseksuelles levevilkår, trivsel og sundhed: Konference og workshop (Denmark); Bisexual Research Conference; and numerous other LGBTQ+ conferences.
Robyn also speaks to community, youth, senior, workplace, and professional groups.
Writing
Co-editor of the 42-country anthology Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World (2005, 2009).
Co-editor of RECOGNIZE: The Voices of Bisexual Men (2014).
Co-editor of a Spanish-language edition of Getting Bi, titled BIsibilidad: Voces bisexuales alrededor del mundo.
Editor of Bi Women Quarterly, a global grassroots publication started in 1983.
Robyn’s writings have appeared in numerous women’s studies, LGBT and multicultural anthologies.
Teaching
Robyn has taught college courses at Massachusetts Institute for Technology, Cambridge, MA (1991); Tufts University, Medford, MA (1992-2003); and Johnson State College (now Northern Vermont University), Vermont (2002).
Courses included: Transgressing Binaries: Sex, Gender, Race and Sexual Orientation; History, Community, Politics: Emergence of Sexual Minority Voices in the U.S. (aka. “The Gay Agenda”); and Identity/Politics: Contextualizing Bisexuality
She also served from 2012 to 2022 as a keynoter and educator in residence at Campus Pride Summer Leadership Camp, a week-long leadership institute for LGBTQ and ally college students; and was on the faculty of the Expanding the Circle Conference, a program sponsored by the California Institute for Integral Studies designed for academic deans and administrators, faculty and faculty development specialists, student life professionals, campus counselors, students, and non-profit professionals seeking to advance LGBTQ issues and concerns in the academy (2013, 2014).
Campus Advocacy
For 26 years, from 1983 until 2009, Robyn worked as an administrator at Harvard University. While there, she co-founded and co-chaired the LGBT Faculty and Staff Group (2008); was an active member of the Trans Task Force; co-founded and facilitated LBTQ Lunches, a monthly lunch series for lesbian, bi, queer, and trans women faculty and staff; and served as a Faculty Adviser to Harvard’s undergraduate student LGBTQ organization, currently called QSA.
Ready to book Robyn ?
“Robyn Ochs can help you put the B into LGBT… As someone poised at the intersection of theory and action, Ochs introduces complex ideas in an energetic and accessible manner, and she leaves her audiences thinking and poised for action.”
“Robyn’s workshop was tremendously informative and engaging, and it has stuck with me for years… participants see what genuine diversity and fluidity look[s] like. The result is a rejection not only of the notion of binaries but of the dominant societal narratives about orientation.”
“I just wanted to thank you personally for the workshop last night. It was one of those things that change the way you look at the world in general, and that doesn’t happen very often.”
Board of Directors
Directorships
Bi Women Quarterly, Inc., President of board of directors, 2020 to the present.
MassEquality (2004-2016). President of C(3) board of directors 2013-2015. Chair of Governance Committee 2015-2016.
Boston Bisexual Women’s Network. Co-founder (1983) and treasurer (1988 to present).
Harvard University LGBT Faculty & Staff Group. Past co-chair. Current Retiree Representative.
Harvard Gender & Sexuality Caucus, past board member.
Commissioner, Massachusetts Commission on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Youth (2013-2015).
SpeakOut (Boston’s GLBT Speaker’s Bureau) (1980s).
Advisory Boards
Journal of Bisexuality
Journal of Feminist Scholarship
Awards
Campus Pride’s 2017 Voice & Action National Leadership Award, awarded July 22, 2017.
Listed on the Advocate‘s list of “50 States, 50 Heroes,” May 10, 2017
Named by Teen Vogue as one of “9 Bisexual Women Who are Making History” on March 25, 2017.
2016 “Fabulous Five” award by North Shore Pride, Salem, MA.
Bisexual Book Awards: In 2015, RECOGNIZE: The Voices of Bisexual Men won in the categories of Best Anthology; Best Non-Fiction and Best Writer; RECOGNIZE was also a finalist for a 2015 Lambda Literary Award
On June 13, 2015, Ochs received the City of Cambridge’s GLBT Commission’s annual recognition award for her work as an educator/activist.
PFLAG’s Brenda Howard Memorial Award, February 2011
Harvard Gay & Lesbian Caucus Lifetime Achievement Award for Advocacy on the Harvard University Campus, Cambridge, Massachusetts, June 2009
National Gay & Lesbian Task Force Susan J. Hyde Activism Award for Longevity in the Movement, Denver, Colorado, January 2009
The University of Massachusetts Stonewall Center Continuing the Legacy of Stonewall Award, Amherst, Massachusetts, May 2007
Reinaldo dos Santos Memorial Award for Bisexual Activism, Sidney, Australia, March 1997
Super Bi Award at International Conference on Bisexuality – Stonewall 25 Celebration, New York City, June 1994
Unity and Diversity Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual Community, Amherst, Massachusetts, 1985