Liberation & Culture Specialist

Areas of Expertise
Refugee protection
Human rights
Decolonization and Anti-Racism
Sexual Violence & Trauma

Aria Geiser leads NJCASA’s anti-oppression programming and support our policy and advocacy work.  Additionally, she will engage with membership programs, community partners, and allied professionals in the development and implementation of innovative programs to reinforce anti-oppression and anti-racist principles. She supports the capacity of local programs to engage with historically marginalized communities through an intersectional, culturally specific, decolonized lens. She is committed to centering the needs of individuals and communities that disproportionately experience sexual violence, as she strives to affect impactful and sustained change at all levels of the socio-ecological model. Her theatre background makes her a skilled facilitator as she develops and provides training and technical assistance to NJCASA’s member organizations, external stakeholders, and allied professionals.

She holds a degree in Human Rights from Columbia University. Her professional accomplishments include working for The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in her home country of Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) at the frontlines of the Venezuelan Humanitarian Crisis. In this capacity she worked extensively with survivors of gender-based violence and has also conducted Refugee Status Determination (RSD) interviews with asylum seekers and adjudicated their asylum claims. She also facilitated multiple workshops on Refugee Protection and Cultural Sensitivity for police and immigration officers, as well as trainings on Human Rights for the UN system in T&T. Her professional experience has also led her to working with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) on their Preventing Violent Extremism and Justice and Social Policy portfolios. Her previous Non-Profit experience includes developing and facilitating a series of trauma-informed workshops for Muslim women. Aria has also worked with the International Rescue Committee assisting resettled refugees. She is very passionate about mental, emotional and sexual and reproductive health as well as supporting other people on their unique journeys to healing and self-actualization.