Kristina Molina has 15 years of experience working with victims of crime. She worked at Bay Area Women Against Rape (BAWAR), the nation’s first rape crisis center, building and creating safe environments for women, men, children, immigrants, and the LGBTQIQAAP+ community to heal and thrive after a sexual assault experience. Under the tutelage of Marcia Blackstock -an icon of the anti-rape movement- Kristina learned the process of providing victim-centered trauma-informed services to survivors of sexual violence. As a program coordinator she developed, designed, and implemented13 high-quality programs for Latinx survivors of sexual abuse in Alameda County. She was also responsible for overseeing program funds, including researching funding sources, establishing strategies to approach funders, submitting proposals, and completing year-end grant reports.

As an advocate, Kristina attended to survivors of sexual violence 24/7 through BAWAR’s hotline, answering survivors’ crisis calls due to triggers, nightmares, suicidal ideations, PTSD, and dissociative identity disorders. The advocate also accompanied survivors to police stations across Alameda County for initial reporting, photo lineups, pretext calls, investigators’ interviews, and crime scene follow-ups. She provided advocacy and accompaniment services during preliminary court hearings, jury trials, victim impact statements, and DA interviews. She also supported survivors during federal immigration hearings and drafted psychological evaluations for the U Visa and other immigration proceedings. She was also part of the Sexual Assault Response Team at Highland and Washington Hospital, supporting survivors during rape forensic examinations, abortion procedures, and STI follow-up treatments. As an advocate, Kristina conducted thousands of calls to acquire certifications on behalf of victims from law enforcement, therapists, and the DA’s office to help survivors with relocation, home security improvements, and immigration proceedings. She also followed up with the DA and Police Departments to gain case status or to address survivors’ concerns about officers’/DAs’ lack of empathy and compassion. In 2007, Kristina formed part of the first sting operations organized by the Oakland Police Department to stop the sexual exploitation of children. She built alliances with dozens of NGOs, intending never to give out a referral or a resource she did not verify or produce a warm handoff. As a peer counselor trained in RTS (Rape Trauma Syndrome) and feminist therapy, Kristina provided short-term counseling sessions to survivors and their loved ones. She organized support groups for youth, men, domestic violence survivors, and significant others at the Family Justice Center, Washington Hospital Offices, and Oakland Unified School District. As a certified Bay Area Wilderness Trainee, Kristina took abused children on a five-day overnight healing camping trip to national, state, and local parks. She was also a presenter, educator, and outreach campaign coordinator reaching over 100 thousand individuals in Alameda County through a local radio show, workshops, presentations, community posters, galas, and media interviews. Kristina was also an advocate trainer, facilitating the 72-hour California State Certified Crisis Intervention Advocate and Counselor training for ten years. As a trainer, Kristina, also set up protocols to safeguard her advocates from vicarious trauma during and after training by bringing therapists and psychologists to heal advocates with art, somatics, and nature.

At BAWAR, Kristina built communication channels to create strong community accountability. She tasked her program coordinators to survey every accompaniment, advocacy, counseling session, training, support group, retreat, or workshop facilitated by her programs. The results were favorable, placing her programs in the high ninetieth percentile. She also conducted a statewide comparative analysis of several rape crisis centers; every four years, she and her staff called rape crisis centers across the state to survey the level of services provided to LGBTQIQAAP+ and Latinx communities; data also concluded that her programs were providing a more comprehensive range of services to a broader range of entities within the Latinx community.

After BAWAR, Alameda County Assessor Phong La hired Kristina to help establish his Communications Department and begin the task of building the bridge between the Assessor ‘s Office and the community.  At the Assessor’s Office she established and maintained relationships with elected officials, chambers of commerce, community organizations, and property owners in Alameda County.  Prepared and edited organizational publications, including Assessor’s newsletter, presentations, and annual reports for internal and external audiences.  Prepared grant applications, including budgets, letters, and resolutions for the Board of Supervisors to vote and approve.  Represented Assessor in ribbon cuttings, networking mixers, galas, presentations, installations, town halls, and community events. Tracked city council agendas and debriefed items relevant to the Assessor’s Office.  Maintained a record of all public relations engagements and assessee questions. Organized workshops on Business Personal Property, Change of Ownership, Assessee Services, and Prop 13 Transfer Base. Worked closely with local elected officials and community partners to secure funds, venue, and community participation in Assessor’s signature events. Promoted, advocated, and built alliances in relation to the passing of the business personal property ordinance in Alameda County for the benefit of small businesses.  Managed Assessor’s Office Latinx Committee and supervised summer interns.

After the Assessor’s Office she went to work for the Oakland Diocese as the Coordinator of the Office of Victims Assistance where she worked closely with the Diocesan Review Board to coordinate the work of preventing and resolving incidents of sexual misconduct. She supervised the Bishops Charter of 2002 for the Protection of Children and Young People and provided the Diocesan Review Board with recommendations.

After working with the Oakland Diocese, Kristina worked briefly as a Direct Service Manager for the San Francisco Food Bank and had to resign from her job in December 2022 when newly elected DA Pamela Price invited her to be a part of her transition team.  She currently works at the DA’s Office as the Director of the Victims & Witness Assistance Division and it’s a board member of the California Crime Victim’s Assistance Association.

EDUCATION:

Kristina graduated with Italian Studies Departmental Honors from the University of California at Berkeley in Spring 2022. Under the supervision of late Professor Steven Botterill, elected member of the Council of the Dante Society of America and editor emeritus of the Society’s Journal on Dante Studies, and Professor Akash Kumar, author of the book Dante’s Elements: Translation and Natural Philosophy from Giacomo da Lentini to the Comedy, Kristina wrote an honors thesis on Dante Alighieri’s La Divina Comedia, a medieval literary masterpiece consisting of 100 pieces of prose written in lingua volgare and considered the second most important literary piece in western literature. She participated in an intensive study abroad program in Siena and Venice, Italy, to acquire the linguistic and cultural skills to read La Comedia. Kristina’s research focused on the first cantica, the first 34 poems entitled Inferno. Although Dante’s Inferno is a fictional narrative of the Catholic doctrine of hell, Kristina strongly correlated the criminal justice system in Dante’s Inferno to the present-day judicial process. Kristina entered two prison systems and talked to individuals who committed the 24 punishable crimes that Dante describes in Inferno. Among the inmates she interviewed were individuals who committed the crimes of human and drug trafficking, murder, fraud, arm robbery, sexual exploitation, child abuse, and mass victimization. The interviews with offenders gave Kristina a different interpretation of the cantos, contradicting the opinions of renowned commentators like John D. Sinclair, Robert M Durling, and Ronald L. Martinez. Her honors thesis “Dante, From the Perspective of People that Caused Harm,” received an A and an invitation from Professor Kumar to participate as a guest lecturer.