Abrianna Morales

Abrianna Morales, of Las Cruces, New Mexico, is a sexual assault survivor, victim advocate, and activist. After being sexually assaulted at the age of fifteen and facing the social, emotional, and legal turmoil of sexual victimization, she decided to create Sexual Assault Youth Support Network (SAYSN) to support, empower, and connect young survivors like her.

Beyond her work with SAYSN, Abrianna has also worked to advocate for legislation to extend the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse in the State of New Mexico, alongside Senator Jeff Steinborn, since 2018. In addition to her legislative advocacy, she has also collaborated with the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA) on a number of projects, including a U.S. Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women grant to provide training and technical assistance to college campuses invested in preventing sexual assault, domestic violence, and stalking.

Currently, Abrianna is a senior at the University of New Mexico studying Psychology and Criminology, and is very passionate about clarifying the role of academic and community-based research in victim advocacy. As a Truman and McNair Scholar, she is working to study how changes to the legal system brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic have changed the ways in which system professionals (e.g., law enforcement, victim advocates, and attorneys) collaborate and facilitate procedural justice for victims of crime.