Cristina Damiani, M.A.

Cristina has over two decades of experience in the public and nonprofit sectors, working to strengthen systems and communities to better support survivors of violence and abuse.

Since 2015, Cristina has served at the Alliance of Local Service Organizations (ALSO), a Chicago-based nonprofit working locally and nationally to realize its vision of Safe Homes and Safe Streets. As Director of Safe Homes, she oversees teams implementing federally funded capacity-building initiatives designed to enhance community and coordinated system responses to domestic and dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking, while also strengthening direct services programming for survivors in Chicago.

Cristina currently serves as Project Director for ALSO’s Underserved Technical Assistance Project (UTAP), funded by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women. In this role, she is responsible for grant management and overseeing a team and collaborators working on capacity-building activities to support grantee organizations nationwide in expanding outreach and improving services for survivors from underserved communities. Additionally, Cristina serves as the point of contact for several grantees, providing both scheduled and on-demand assistance.

Prior to joining ALSO, Cristina was Administrative Director at the Oregon Crime Victims Law Center (OCVLC), where she helped build the administrative and fiscal infrastructure of the then newly established nonprofit while also providing bilingual advocacy to crime victims, including survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.

Earlier in her career, Cristina worked with the Office of Court Administration in Puerto Rico, where she played a key role in planning, implementing, and expanding Puerto Rico’s first specialized domestic violence court—an initiative that strengthened coordinated system responses and improved survivor access to justice. She began her professional journey at a New York City-based social justice nonprofit, contributing to national technical assistance and training projects funded by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women.

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Cristina holds a B.A. in Law and Society from American University and an M.A. in Anthropology from Hunter College, City University of New York. Proud of her cultural and linguistic roots, she grounds her work in her core belief that everyone deserves access to the resources they need to be safe, access justice, heal, and thrive.