Payal Sinha

Payal joined Tahirih in 2021. As Director of Strategic Partnerships and Community Engagement, she leads national pro bono engagement and fosters community partnerships to expand access to justice for immigrant survivors of gender-based violence. Prior to this position, she was the Managing Attorney at Tahirih San Francisco Office. Through her career as an Attorney, she has provided legal representation to survivors of gender-based violence in their Immigration and Family Law Matters. She is a distinguished Women in Policy Fellow, Diversity Fellow at ABA Family Law Section and is a current fellow at the 2025 Public Voices Fellow on Domestic Violence and Economic Security with The OpEd Project and the Blue Shield of California Foundation. She had the opportunity to work on CA bills AB 865: Mandatory CSEC training for Resource families (Approved by Governor in October 2019) and SB 493: Gender Equity in Education: Sexual Harassment and Sexual Violence, a bill that protects California students’ civil rights (Approved by Governor in Oct 2020).

She served as a vice-chair at the International and Immigration Section (CLA) and a co-chair at the Immigration Committee at California Lawyers Association. She has also served as president-elect at the SABA SC Public Foundation. She served as a founding Board Member of SAAHAS for Cause, a Southern California Non-Profit that serves culturally specific communities and is known for its prevention work. She has been awarded the CA Senate Certificate for her work in the field of policy advocacy in 2018. She currently serves as Santa Clara County Commissioner on the Human Rights Committee. She has provided an array of subject matter trainings at various National, & State level conferences including AILA, VALOUR, California Partnership to End DV, State Coalitions, U.S Army Victim Assistance Liaison, ASISTA TA providers and others.

“I am inspired by Tahirih’s commitment to provide access to trauma informed, holistic services to overcome barriers that a gender based violence survivor endures in their journey.”

Education: USC Gould School of Law, LL.M

Languages: English, Hindi

Hometown: New Delhi, India

Latest News
- Statement from Tahirih CEO on the Return of Family Detention: “It is a shameful practice.”
  
  In response to recent media reports about the return of family detention, Tahirih Justice Center’s CEO Archi Pyati states, “Family detention is a cruel and inhumane policy that inflicts irreparable […]
  
  March 7, 2025
- Trump’s policies on gender identity and immigration have trans immigrants worried about their future
  
  Casey Carter Swegman, director of public policy at Tahirih Justice Center, a nonprofit serving immigrants fleeing gender-based violence, said immigrants and transgender people are “highly targeted and vulnerable” individually, which […]
  
  March 3, 2025
Survivor Voices
- Anastasia
  
  I came to the U.S. in the winter of 2006. Life back home in Mexico was tough for me and my family. I dreamt of going to college and graduating but with my family’s economic status, that dream was too costly and impossible.
  At least I was able to graduate high school and that is something I am proud of since I was also working at the time to help my family. I was always looking for an opportunity to have a better life as a young woman.
  
  June 23, 2023
- Camila
  
  “I hope my story is helpful to someone else…and can inspire many women to be stronger. We need to help young women identify toxic relationships, so that there are fewer Camilas that go through such difficult things, let alone have our children suffer.”
  
  November 21, 2022

Payal Sinha

Latest News

Statement from Tahirih CEO on the Return of Family Detention: “It is a shameful practice.”

Trump’s policies on gender identity and immigration have trans immigrants worried about their future

Survivor Voices

Anastasia

Camila

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