Dr. Becky Avila

Senior Director, Grants and Contract | Safe Place for Youth

“Racial equity honors the efforts and lives of our ancestors, works to uproot centuries of ideologies and infrastructures that come at the expense of, and cause physical, emotional, and economic harm to BIPOC communities, and nurtures a society in which communities of color are empowered, well-resourced, and able to take root.”

Dr. Becky Avila is a Los Angeles native who grew up in the Mar Vista Gardens housing projects of West Los Angeles. The first in her family to go to college, Becky earned her PhD from the University of East Anglia, a UK-based university, in 2016. It was then that she returned to her roots in West LA to work within the non-profit sector.

For the past 3 years, she has worked as Safe Place for Youth's Senior Grants Manager, ensuring that the stories of the youth they serve are told in the most thoughtful and trauma-informed ways.