Executive Director (Founding)

Sonya Shah initiated The Ahimsa Collective in 2016. She has worked at the intersection of healing and justice, restorative practices, and interrupting sexual violence for the past 20 years. She has been involved in land-based healing work for the last five years. Sonya 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, love, and compassion. She is a first-generation immigrant from the Northwestern part of India. Sonya feels at home in nature and spends a lot of time walking around the woods with her dog. She has two amazing children who remind her what it means to be in love all the time. Sonya grew up in New York and currently resides in Northern California