Khalilah Collins
Before moving to New Orleans to lead Making Connections NOLA, she worked at at the Center for Women and Families - a domestic violence/sexual assault shelter as the Project Manager for PACT In Action, a teen dating violence prevention project. Prior to working at The Center, Khalilah was the Executive Director of Women In Transition, a grassroots organization focused on economic justice and human right issues to increase access to basic human needs such as housing, healthcare, jobs with living wages, etc. for everyone and in 2009 she lead the organizing around the Building the Unsettling Force: A National Conference to End Poverty in Louisville, KY that had over 900 attendees from around the world. She was Co-Director of Kentucky Health Justice Network that focused on reproductive justice issues. She has served as the Co-Chair for the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, a national organization working to end poverty in the US. As part of that work with them, she has been part of the Social Forum process, locally, national and internationally, which creates a space for activists, educators, and organizers to come together about issues affecting their communities.
She is also an adjunct professor with Jefferson Community & Technical College and the University of Louisville, Kent School of Social Work. She is committed to developing students who will become active citizens that understand the value of community engagement. She has been named as one of 128 Louisville Connectors and one of 65 West Louisville Connectors by Leadership Louisville. She has served on several boards and committees such as the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, Urban Spirit, Community Winterhelp, Restorative Justice Louisville, and currently CrescentCare Health Center in New Orleans. Her passion is learning/teaching, social justice and the eliminations of any form of oppression including but not limited to racism, capitalism and sexism. And she is currently spending her days in between New Orleans and Louisville as she works with on the ground organizers seeking Justice for Breonna Taylor and David McAtee both of whom were murdered by law enforcement.