Aquia Pusch

Aquia Pusch (she/her) provides support, training, and technical assistance to Activating Change’s Enhancing Access grantees program. Aquia is an experienced trainer and has dedicated her professional life to addressing and decreasing systemic barriers across all service provisions. Further, she is committed to ensuring safe, equitable, and accessible futures for survivors from historically underserved, unserved, underinvested, and marginalized communities.

Aquia joined the Enhancing Access project in 2023 as a senior program associate. Prior to joining Activating Change, Aquia worked as the rural outreach advocacy coordinator for the Kansas Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence (KCSDV). At KCSDV, Aquia provided technical assistance and training nationwide on topics relevant to rural and underserved survivors of domestic and sexual violence. Additionally, Aquia developed training and professional development materials concerning equity, cultural humility, anti-racism, anti-oppression, outreach, engagement, inclusion, and increasing access.

In 2018, Aquia began serving on the Kansas BELIEVE project, a collaborative project between KCSDV and the Self-Advocate Coalition of Kansas, working to improve services to survivors with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) who have experienced sexual and domestic violence. In 2022, Aquia chaired the Equity Committee for the Kansas State-Wide Homeless Coalition and has served on the Board of Directors for the Youth Trust Project, a non-profit focused on serving homeless LGBTQ Youth. Aquia holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Washburn University.