Em Alves

March 1, 2023
Site Developer

Em Alves (they/them/elle) is a Campus Program Manager on the OVW Student Populations Grant for NOVA’s Campus Training & Technical Assistance Program. Em is a social worker with 10 years of experiences in interpersonal violence prevention and intervention both as a student advocate and professional within campus-, community-, and hospital-based programs.

In their MSW program, Em concentrated in Violence and Injury Prevention among women with a specialization in policy. In addition to their work within interpersonal violence, Em worked within Reproductive Justice in Latinx Communities. Em approaches violence prevention and response from a broad lens, centering anti-oppressive practices and a margins-to-center approach. Em entered the field of social work because they believe that pushing systems and challenging hegemonic policies are necessary for the collective liberation of all.

For three years, Em worked on the Auraria campus as a preventionist focusing on survivor- and student-centered practices. Em is passionate about understanding the ways that media and content creation is impacting and stimulating conversations around violence, and utilizing media literacy to draw out the nuances. Through frameworks like sex positivity and anti-racism they spearheaded the prevention program and began an ongoing podcast called “Phoenix Cast” as a way to bring anti-violence and advocacy to students on-the-go while still being trauma-informed.

At NOVA, Em focuses on four priority populations for the OVW Campus Program: Immigrant, LGBTIA+, disabled, and military-connected students. In this role, Em leads listening sessions with students across the nation to best identify their ever-changing and often overlapping needs.