Nubia Peña, J.D.
BA Sociology
Director
Utah Division of Multicultural Affairs
Ms. Nubia Peña is the Director for the Utah Division of Multicultural Affairs where
their
mission is to promote an inclusive climate for Utah's growing diverse community through
training,
outreach and youth leadership development. Ms. Peña is immensely grateful for the
extensive
experience acquired during the past 15 years working as a community organizer, advocate,
and ally for marginalized populations. She has the great opportunity to facilitate
dialogues amongst local and national leaders on complex topics of inclusivity and
diversity working to create equitable access in services and resources for disenfranchised
communities. Ms. Peña also designs and implements various workshops on creating inclusive,
culturally relevant, and gender-specific programming for at-risk communities, specifically
when working with youth and adolescents.
Ms. Peña is a proud former member of the zealous team at the Utah Juvenile Defender
Attorneys where she advocated for youth rights during detention and delinquency proceedings.
She is also certified by the National Juvenile Defender Center as a Juvenile Training
Immersion
Program facilitator. In addition, Ms. Peña is a national consultant dedicated to bringing
awareness
to intersections of trauma and the School-to-Prison Pipeline, an epidemic that targets
our most
vulnerable youth by streamlining them into the juvenile justice system.
Ms. Peña has actively sought to bring awareness to issues of violence and systemic oppression through her professional endeavors and personal faith-based initiatives. She has a decade of experience assisting survivors of domestic abuse, sexual assault, human trafficking, and violent crimes as a Law Enforcement Victim Advocate. Since 2007, Ms. Peña has served as the Training and Prevention Education Specialist at the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault (UCASA) where she developed trainings on Youth Advocacy for Trafficked Survivors, Social Justice in Prevention Efforts, and Sexual Harassment in the #MeToo Era. In addition, she is also the founder and director of Royalty Rising Youth Ministry, a culturally relevant and gender specific outreach initiative for at-risk and marginalized young adults.
Ms. Peña received her Juris Doctorate from the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College
of
Law in May 2016. During that year, she was selected as one of 25 law students in the
nation to be
recognized and highlighted for her social justice activism in the National Jurist,
a leading news
source in legal education. Ms. Peña was also selected as the recipient of the National
Juvenile
Justice Network 2019 Emerging Leader Award due to her longstanding commitment to youth
rights, empowerment, and leadership development. Ms. Peña was recently named as one
of Utah
Business Magazine’s 2020 40 Under 40 award recipients.