ALIA WHITNEY-JOHNSON

Co-Founder

Alia Whitney-Johnson is an experienced social entrepreneur with over two decades of work alongside children and youth who have experienced trauma, sexual abuse, and exploitation. Her leadership is grounded in deep listening and a belief in the power of young people to drive the transformation of the systems that impact their lives.

As Co-Founder and Founding Executive Director of Freedom Forward, Alia led efforts to bring youth, service providers, and government together to reimagine support systems for young people across San Francisco. Her initiatives included the development of the HYPE Center—a multi-service drop-in center by and for youth; FAM—a family-based foster care model for youth impacted by commercial sexual exploitation; and SF SOL—a collaborative of trauma-informed service providers. She also served as Co-Chair of San Francisco’s Youth Trafficking Committee for the Mayor’s Task Force on Anti-Human Trafficking, where she launched the task force’s first Youth Advisory Board and a healing-centered leadership fellowship for youth. In recognition of her impact, Alia received the 2022 Modern-Day Abolitionist Award from SFCAHT.

Alia now leads Emerge Lanka Foundation (www.emergelanka.org), the first organization she founded at age 19, which partners with Sri Lankan survivors of child sexual abuse to support healing, economic self-sufficiency, and systemic transformation.

Previously, Alia worked as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, where she helped lead its collaboration with Lean In and a national campaign focused on men’s roles in advancing gender equity. She has served on several boards, including the MIT Corporation (MIT’s board of trustees), SERES Global, ATHack!, and Freedom Forward. Alia holds a B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from MIT and an MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar.