Biography

Sonya Shah initiated The Ahimsa Collective in 2016, where she works at the intersection of healing and justice, restorative and transformative justice and interrupting sexual and gender-based violence.  She is also an associate professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies and has been teaching there since 2004. Central to her core values are nurturing community belonging and collective care, healing, compassion, love and transforming harm. She is a Buddhist, a first-generation immigrant from the Northwestern part of India, and a survivor of child sexual abuse. Sonya feels most at home in nature and spends a lot of time walking in the woods with her dog and her life-partner. She has two amazing children who remind her what it means to be in love all of the time, and currently resides in northern California.

Publications

The Prison Within. Dir. Katherin Harvey. Featuring Troy Williams, Pheon Yu, Sam Johnson, Barry Spillman, Eddie Herrena, sonya shah, sujatha baliga. National. 12/2019. Healing Justice. Documentary. Dir. by Shakti Butler, Featuring Gary Malachi Scott, James Bell, Fania Davis, sonya shah, sujatha baliga and others. September, 2017