Maya Paley

Maya Paley has two decades of experience in the nonprofit field, serving as a thoughtful and effective leader on gender equity, economic justice, and refugee rights. Maya consults and trains on a range of topics, including program development and evaluation, policy advocacy, fund development, strategic planning and visioning, coalition-building, volunteer engagement, and leadership development. Maya is also a speaker, panelist, and trainer on sexual violence prevention, gender equity, economic justice, equity in the workplace, and workplace culture change, serving both nonprofit organizations as well as businesses.

Maya recently served as the Senior Director and Co-Founder of Change the Talk for the National Council of Jewish Women, Los Angeles (NCJW|LA), a sexual violence prevention program for and by teens. Maya also served as NCJW|LA’s Director of Advocacy and Community Engagement for several years and was responsible for the organization’s advocacy and policy agenda, communications, community organizing, as well as recruiting and training hundreds of volunteers to advocate for state and local bills and to conduct outreach on human trafficking prevention throughout LA County. Maya served on the Steering Committee for the CA Work and Family Coalition, the Executive Committee for the LA Coalition for Reproductive Justice, and was an active participant in several other local and state-wide coalitions. Maya has also worked internationally conducting research and advocacy on refugee and sex worker rights.

Maya earned her Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from UC Berkeley and her Master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University with a concentration on economic and political development and a focus on gender and migration. She received the Outstanding Woman Leader Award from the City of Santa Monica in 2018 and the Women in Leadership Award from the City of West Hollywood in 2019. Maya was a New Leaders Council Institute Fellow in 2015 and part of the Next Leaders Development Program cohort of the Center for Nonprofit Management in 2019. She was a featured "hero" in artist Taiji Terasaki's Heroes at Borders exhibit at the Japanese American National Museum in 2020. Maya currently serves on the Board of Directors of the League of Women Voters California as the Co-Chair of the Development Committee. When not doing all this, Maya loves to write, read, think, rest, and spend time with family and friends.