By admin 
Ashley Faison-Maddox’s mom said she could be anything she wanted when she grew up.
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She decided to be someone who helped people.
Faison-Maddox is the founder and executive director of the Diamond Collective, a Sacramento-based nonprofit that provides resources to human trafficking survivors and their children. Since the nonprofit’s launch, Faison-Maddox has helped more than 60 survivors in the Sacramento region, she said.
The roots of Diamond Collective are personal for Faison-Maddox. As a survivor of human trafficking herself, she wanted to show other survivors that life is bigger than the trauma. There’s still room to dream and live a “beautiful life,” she said.
“Life can be beautiful even beyond trauma; it can contain joy,” Faison-Maddox said. “Joy disrupts trauma.”
This year, Faison-Maddox was awarded the 2026 Woman of the Year by Assemblymember Josh Hoover’s office for her work empowering survivors.
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Under her leadership, the organization provides healing experiences to survivors of trafficking by providing access to the Sacramento Ballet and through kayaking and horseback riding.
Members of the collective even travel the globe as a part of their healing process. The group recently took a trip to Costa Rica.
“After trauma, we can look at this world with a lens of negativity,” Faison-Maddox said. “Having hope and being able to dream … always having something to look forward to … I want survivors to have that.”
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