Ariella Neckritz headshot

Ariella Neckritz

Director of Youth Programs

Ariella Neckritz (they/she) is the Director of Youth Programs at The Representation Project. For the last six and a half years they worked at Jewish Women International spearheading trauma-informed, intersectional, and culturally humble prevention programming and community training initiatives. As the Director of Violence Prevention and Training at JWI they were the organization’s lead trainer, curriculum writer, and workshop facilitator working with college campuses, Jewish community centers, and service providers. Under their leadership Change the Culture, JWI’s campus prevention programming, reached over 6,000 students through over 100 sexual assault and dating violence prevention workshops at more than 20 universities and 10 Hillels. They managed JWI’s National Alliance to End Domestic Abuse, a professional development network for domestic violence prevention and response professions offering monthly training webinars led by the country’s top experts. They have organized over 80 webinars reaching 8,000 survivor advocates, attorneys, social workers, and domestic violence shelter staff. They launched Here For You Jewish Communal Support for Domestic Violence Survivors and their Children teaching 500 early childhood educators, youth program directors, and camp staff about supporting survivors and fostering the resilience in children exposed to domestic violence.

They previously served as the Director of Outreach & Community Engagement at Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment (PAVE) a survivor led nonprofit that empowers survivors of sexual assault to thrive after trauma and galvanizes communities to end sexual violence. At PAVE Ariella developed and implement campaigns, healing initiatives, webinars, and sexual and dating violence prevention curriculum for high school students, teachers, and administrators at Arlington County Public Schools.

In college they were the President of George Washington University Students Against Sexual Assault, a peer education, activist, and survivor support organization. Their advocacy efforts at GWU worked to provide trainings to more than 60 student organizations and achieved gains like extensions of the reporting window and mandatory sexual violence prevention and education sessions for all incoming students. They received their Bachelor of Arts degree from George Washington University in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Human Services and Social Justice.