Bios

Karma Cottman, pronouns she, her, hers, serves Ujima Inc., The National Center on Violence Against Women in the Black Community as Chief Executive Officer. In addition to leading the team, Karma’s responsibilities include engaging in discussions with other programs, legislative officials and state and local government agencies. She works to change legislation and laws as they relate to domestic violence and the black community.

Before joining Ujima Inc., Karma led the DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence as Executive Director for a decade, and prior to that, served the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV), for a decade. As the Vice President of Policy and Emerging Issues, she directed the agency’s policy agenda and supervised NNEDV’s state coalition and housing technical assistance projects. Karma also worked closely with national policy partners to strengthen federal legislation to effectively respond to the needs of all survivors of domestic violence.

Karma, a Washington, D.C. native, has worked with numerous national partners to address emerging issues in domestic violence service provision and sits on several national committees. She also served as the co-director of the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence Rural Diversity Initiative where she assisted with the development of a community assessment tool used to identify service gaps in numerous local Florida communities. Karma currently serves on the steering committee of the Institute on Domestic Violence in the African Community and the Policy Partnership for Communities of Color. Karma enjoys spending time with family and friends and also reading.

Lonna Davis is the Director of the Children and Youth Program at Futures Without Violence. Ms. Davis brings personal experience as a survivor of violence and sexual assault and over thirty years of a demonstrated track record on behalf of women, children and families who experience violence.

Ms. Davis has 20 years of experience providing technical assistance to states and communities concerning violence against women, child abuse and children’s exposure to violence. She has been in the forefront of several national initiatives, including the Attorney General’s Defending Childhood Initiative, the Greenbook Initiative and most recently, a National Quality Improvement Center focused on children and families involved in the child welfare system who are experiencing domestic violence. Ms. Davis also co-founded the National Institute on Fatherhood and Domestic Violence and has led many efforts to develop solutions to the problems of violence against women and children’s exposure to violence.

Prior positions include working in two domestic violence programs and a Boston based trauma clinic performing forensic evaluations of children exposed to violence. Ms. Davis also worked for a decade at the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families, where she co-founded the first domestic violence program to address child abuse within the child protection setting.

Tami, an Anvik tribal member, is currently residing in Fairbanks, Alaska, after living and working for the past 25 years in Anvik Alaska, a small Deg Hit’an Athabascan community on the Yukon River. She is the mother of four children and the grandmother of five grandchildren. She has worked in the field of Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, and intersecting issues for the last 40-plus years in various capacities. Ms. Jerue's education includes a Bachelor's Degree in Social Work, Community Psychology, and Secondary Education. She has been involved with many non-profit Boards over the years. She has worked most of her professional life in rural Tribal Alaska, providing direct services for the State and tribes, including as a Therapist, Sexual Assault Counselor, Teacher, Tribal Administrator, ICWA Social Worker and Trainer, and Tribal Director of Social Services. As an ICWA Social Worker and Director of Social Services, she managed a child protection team; developed and implemented a Youth Mentor Program focused on preventing violence and substance abuse. She currently works as the Executive Director of the Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center. Her many experiences, and that of her family and friends, with Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault have kept Ms. Jerue passionate about helping facilitate change at a community level, within systems, and families to help survivors live violence-free lives.

Lucy Rain Simpson brings a wealth of legal and public policy experience, having served as an attorney in Indian country for almost 20 years, with over 15 years of financial and administrative management and supervision experience. Before joining the NIWRC team, she served as the Public Policy Coordinator for Sacred Circle and as the Senior Staff Attorney for the Indian Law Resource Center, where she worked on, among other projects, the Center’s Safe Women, Strong Nations project to address the epidemic of violence against Native women in this country. She has substantial experience working with Indian nations to promote tribal sovereignty, tribal code development, and protecting Native women and their families.

Ruby, is an American of Mexican descent born in the border town of Calexico, California and raised in the neighboring city of El Centro. During her illustrious 25 year career in the violence against women’s field, Ruby has operated and led domestic violence shelter and transitional housing programs, provided consultation and training in almost every U.S. city and territory and across Canada and South America, secured and administered over 15 million dollars in funds to improve outcomes for victims of violence, and lead the implementation of more than 50 federal projects to respond to violence against women.

Before launching LUPE, Ruby served as the Chief Strategy Officer and Director of Casa de Esperanza’s, National Latin@ Network for Healthy Families and Communities (NLN). Here, she led programs such as the Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women’s (OVW) program to Enhance Culturally Specific Services for Victims and the Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, and Stalking on Campus program to strengthen the response of institutions of higher education. Prior to the NLN, Ruby spent the bulk of more than 15 years as Assistant Director of the Family Violence Department for the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ). At NCJFCJ, Ruby directed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, national Resource Center on Domestic Violence: Child Protection and Custody and the OVW’s Safe Haven’s Supervised Visitation and Exchange Technical Assistance Program; the Adolescent Relationship Abuse Training for Judges Program; and the Federal Greenbook Initiative, an interagency collaboration to address the co-occurrence of domestic violence and child maltreatment.

From 2004 to 2012, Ruby served as President of the Board of Directors for the National Latino Alliance for the Elimination of Domestic Violence, the most prominent national organization of its time working to eliminate domestic violence in the Latino community. She is a former national advisory committee member for the Women of Color Network and past president of the Board of Directors of the Nevada Network Against Domestic Violence. Ruby is the author of several articles including Resiliency in Children Exposed to Family Violence in Resiliency in Action Practical Ideas for Overcoming Risks and Building Strengths in Youth, Families, and Communities published by Research Press; Promoting Safety in Cases Involving Domestic Violence and Child Maltreatment in The Connection, published by the National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association; Working at the Intersections: Promoting Access and Accountability remarks at the U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women 2016 STOP Administrators & Coalition Directors Joint Meeting, Chicago, IL available at http://also-chicago.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/STOP-Remarks-Ruby.pdf and Moving from the Mainstream to the Margins: Lessons in Culture and Power published by Springer US in the Journal of Family Violence (2018) available at https://rdcu.be/5CC0

Ruby holds a B.A. in speech communication from the University of Nevada, Reno. She is the mother of two children: Chance White, 24, and Sierra White, 22, both graduates of her alma matter. Her father was born and raised in Magdelena, Sonora, Mexico. Hailing from a line of strong, political and civic minded activists, Ruby’s mother, Margarita Suaza, was born in Mexicali, Mexico and raised in the U.S. Ms. Suaza is the Executive Director of Sure Helpline Crisis Center, a violence intervention and prevention center serving various border towns in the Imperial County of California and honored at the state capitol in June of 2018 as the 56th Assembly District Non-profit of the Year. In addition to her professional experience, Ruby shares her personal experience as a child witness and child, adolescent, and adult victim of violence in hopes that her experiences will lead to better practices and outcomes for women, children, and families who experience violence.