Hera Jay Brown

Trained as an anthropoligst, Hera Jay’s background in justice-based advocacy and storytelling undergirds her work as Beyond Legal Aid’s Development Manager.

Prior to Beyond, she founded Sanctuarium, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting Transgender, Intersex, and Gender Variant (TIGV) immigrant communities in the US through research-based advocacy. In this role, she launched several programs focused on access and support and convened collaborative workshops with community leaders and universities in California and Illinois, effectively establishing a new national network that continues today.

Hera Jay holds a Master's degree from the University of Oxford and completed her training as a Rhodes Scholar. Before Oxford, she held positions in the research, nonprofit, and policy sectors. Her work has received multiple awards, including the Rhodes Scholarship, the Rhodes Service Year Award, and the Fulbright-Schuman Graduate Research Scholarship to the EU.

Today, Hera Jay continues to lead at the intersections of research, advocacy, and storytelling, most recently publishing “Incubating Futures” alongside three co-authors in 2025. A desire to advance the rights of and protections for marginalized communities remains the core driver throughout all of her work.