Ayana Wallace
Training Manager, Ujima, Inc.: The National Center on Violence Against Women in the Black Community
Ayana Wallace, pronouns she, her, hers, serves Ujima, Inc.: The National Center on Violence Against Women in the Black Community as the Training Specialist. She is primarily responsible for providing national training and technical assistance to service providers and the community at-large, that centers the needs, voices, intersections, and realities of Black women and girls.
Before joining Ujima, Inc, she served as a client case coordinator providing direct services and support to survivors seeking emergency shelter. She has been instrumental in the national implementation of the Lethality Assessment Program—Maryland Model (LAP) and has served as the lead trainer for the Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence (MNADV), the state coalition in Maryland. She has worked for over a decade in the domestic violence field providing both direct service to survivors and technical assistance to advocates, law enforcement, community-based partners, and faith communities.
Ayana is passionate about and has extensively studied the theory and everyday implications of privilege, oppression, and intersectionality. She holds a master’s in Women’s and Gender Studies with a focus on violence in communities of color, specifically intimate partner violence (IPV), sexual violence, and institutional violence. She is a writer, poet, animal advocate, and mom of two fur-babies.