Nastia Gorodilova L’23

Nastia has worked in professional and organizing spaces to address sexual harm and the systems that respond to it since their undergraduate years at Brown University. Through their work and lived experiences as a queer first-generation immigrant, Nastia recognized that sexual violence is a systemic issue that must be addressed at structural levels, which motivated them to pursue a law degree.

Upon graduating Brown University in 2016, Nastia spearheaded a statewide Training and Technical Assistance Center at the NYC Alliance Against Sexual Assault, training rape crisis programs on bringing anti-oppressive prevention education to diverse communities and trauma-informed services to survivors. Nastia has also worked extensively on addressing sexual violence in educational settings through Title IX, working with Know Your IX as an undergraduate student, then continuing to organize against harmful policies in order to protect students’ right to an education free from violence. In the last few years, Nastia has spoken at a number of national conferences on centering the experiences of LGBTQIA+ and immigrant survivors, and on applying restorative principles to sexual harm work.

Repeatedly witnessing that current systems often do not serve survivors, particularly those with intersecting marginalized identities, Nastia started engaging in restorative justice and community-based responses to harm and conflict. They are currently movement-building around alternative justice processes for survivors beyond the criminal legal system. At Penn Law, Nastia hopes to continue advocating for structural changes to ensure that survivors are not criminalized or re-victimized by systems.