Sonya Shah (she, her, hers) is a social justice educator who works to seed models of restorative justice and trauma healing in her community and across the United States. In 2016 she initiated the Ahimsa Collective, an organization that works to respond to harm in ways that foster wholeness for everyone. Her experiences as a survivor of child sexual abuse are critical in her analysis and approach to this work. In her talk, Shah spoke about types of sexual harm, their specific connections to sexism and patriarchy, and considered ways to address and heal this harm through restorative, transformative and healing justice.
In addition to her other work, Shah is a founding member of Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice with Californians for Safety and Justice. She has served on the advisory board for Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth and the board of trustees for the California Institute of Integral Studies, where she is an associate professor. Shah publishes regularly on Huffington Post and has appeared on NPR and various radio programs.