Sharlena Powell (she/her) is a change agent for strengthening survivor autonomy as it relates to housing navigation and economic stability. Her expertise includes national technical assistance on VAWA housing policy provisions, HMIS and Comparable Database Systems compliance and development of procedures, fair compensation methods for persons with lived experience in workgroup advisory coalitions, and systems mapping techniques for on-the-ground VSP’s/first-responders, and in CoC jurisdictions. Her subject matter expertise has been provided to at minimum 7 Family Justice Centers and 3 CoC’s in FY2023-23. 

Sharlena works to amplify the voices of survivors of DV/SA/HT in niche, vulnerable populations;  including unaccompanied and unsheltered women, and in culturally-specific communities with language accommodation needs; for their recommendations to be incorporated within decision-making entities and councils. Her approach in working to uplift marginalized and impoverished communities stems from principles of trauma-informed care and restorative healing practices, with a focus on dynamic and preventative aftercare to address the racial equity wealth gap.  Her work as a contributing author has been published with the United Nations University at Delta Code 8.7: Using Computational Science and AI (Artificial Intelligence) to End Modern Slavery.

Sharlena also analyzes the spectrum of abusive harm-doing in facilitating vocational programming for incarcerated youth in NYC with healthy sustainable life skills and culinary arts for 4 years, and has been named as a previous finalist in the American Entrepreneurship Award.