Alyssa Benedict

Executive Director, CORE Associates LLC; Co-Founder, Women's Justice Institute

Alyssa is the founder and Executive Director of CORE Associates, and works across sectors to provide training and technical assistance to support implementation of gender responsive, trauma-informed and culturally responsive policies and practices, including multi-site statewide initiatives and specialized approaches in justice, behavioral health, and human service settings. She encourages international learning and engagement and has explored human service systems and individual and social trauma and resilience in the US, Canada, Thailand, Germany and South Africa. Alyssa has been a thought leader regarding critical issues affecting system-involved women and girls and the implementation of trauma and resiliency-informed approaches. She has served as a consultant and faculty member on various state and federal initiatives, and has authored and co-authored various publications, models and tools designed to support implementation of gender responsive and trauma-informed approaches, including dynamic staff training curricula, facility and community organizational assessments, and model approaches to building cultures of resilience and motivation. Alyssa has a sub-specialty in the neurobiology and ecology of trauma and is the lead author of Creating Regulation and Resilience (CR/2™). She is also co-founder of The Women’s Justice Institute (WJI), a national think and do tank that works to implement transformational policies with and for women throughout systems and communities, and has created dynamic tools anchored in cross-sector collaboration. The WJI’s work continues to help redefine justice for and with women and has been featured nationally and internationally.