Our Team

Amita is the Founding Co-Director of Mirror Memoirs, and a  lifelong organizer, educator, storyteller, and strategist working to end interpersonal and institutional violence against young people. Their work stems from their experiences as a non-binary queer femme of color, daughter of immigrants from India, and a survivor of years of childhood abuse by their parents, including eight years of rape by their father,  and violent state intervention at the age of 13. In 2016, Amita received a Just  Beginnings Collaborative Fellowship, allowing them to launch Mirror Memoirs. From  2016-2018, they assembled a national advisory board and recorded 60 stories from survivors across 15 states in the US. In January 2017, they testified on behalf of survivors of sexual violence and LGBTQI+ Americans as a witness for the Democratic  Party against Jeff Sessions’ nomination as the US Attorney General. From 2009 to  2012, Amita was the Project Coordinator and a cast member of Secret Survivors, an off-Broadway production they co-created with the award-winning Ping Chong &  Company, featuring adult survivors of child sexual abuse telling their stories through theater. Amita is also a published writer whose work has appeared in the anthologies  Dear Sister: Letters from Survivors of Sexual Violence, Queering Sexual Violence,  Pleasure Activism, and Beyond Survival: Stories and Strategies from the Transformative  Justice Movement. Over the past twenty years, they have been an executive director,  board chair, youth organizer, faculty member, and consultant at organizations serving low-income, immigrant, and LGBTQ+ communities of color. They are also a frequent keynote speaker, delivering over 100 talks from a TEDx conference to the National  Sexual Assault Conference and National Conference on Health and Domestic Violence to colleges, conferences, and nonprofits nationwide. They hold a Master’s in Public  Administration from NYU, where they were a Reynolds Fellow in Social  Entrepreneurship and a Bachelor’s in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. 

Jaden is a Los Angeles-based organizer, cultural worker, and educator dedicated to cultivating healing-centered spaces for marginalized communities. He joined the staff as Co-Director in December 2020. As a survivor storyteller in the archive since 2017, he has played a pivotal role in co-designing Mirror Memoirs’ strategic vision, programs, and structure. Jaden’s work as a board and staff member of several grassroots and nonprofit organizations has included designing and leading programs for trans folks to access health services, training government agencies to better serve transgender people, participatory action research, and policy advocacy at the city and county level. Jaden was an inaugural member of the Los Angeles Transgender Advisory Council, a 2017 California HIV/AIDS Policy Research Fellow, a 2019 Echoing Green finalist, a 2021 Solis Policy Institute Fellow at the Women’s Foundation of California, and a 2021 John W. Mack Movement Building Fellow at the Weingart Foundation. He is also the Equity Director and a Board member of the Association for Size Diversity and  Health. Jaden is a performance poet and frequent keynote speaker, including 2020 talks at the #MeTooLGBTQ conference by San Diego Pride, at the #MeToo Movement  Survivor Summit, and Lambda LitFest. In 2019, he self-published his first chapbook,  Intentional Musings on Staying Alive When I Want To Die, an honest depiction of navigating mental health disabilities and systemic oppression. He holds a B.S. in  Psychology from the University of Southern California. 

Bilen is a multifaceted professional with a passion for care work. Born and raised in Ethiopia, she is a first-generation immigrant eldest daughter, and survivor doing her very best. She joined the staff as Operation Director in October 2023 and has been a survivor storyteller in the archive since 2017. Bilen’s diverse background includes expertise in urban agriculture and food justice. She has played significant roles, serving as an Outreach Coordinator at GreenThumb (Department of Parks & Recreation – NYC), co-founding the Black Urban Growers, and contributing to educational programming for community gardens and urban farms. She also worked as a Program Manager at the Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment, contributing to the creation of the Academy of Environmental Leadership. Bilen’s work as a full spectrum doula is grounded in liberatory practices, bridging the gaps in interdependence and providing support during life’s most challenging transitions with compassion and understanding. Her commitment to resilience, uplifting the most marginalized voices, and offering compassionate care shines through her professional endeavors. Bilen holds a BA in Environmental Studies from Mount Holyoke College and an MA in Social Science: Environment & Community from Humboldt State University.