Nykia Gatson (she/her) is a community-rooted organizer, writer, and justice advocate whose work is shaped by her lived experience navigating the child welfare and juvenile legal systems. She is the CEO and Founder of Sacrifice For Liberation Inc., where she leads with a vision for transforming systems through youth power, healing, and strategic community organizing. In this role, she oversees organizational strategy, fundraising, financial management, staff support, community engagement, and advocacy efforts that center directly impacted young people.

Based in Wichita, Kansas, Nykia also serves as a Violence Interrupter Specialist with Cure Violence ICT, building trusted relationships with youth and families at the highest risk of harm. She intervenes in conflicts, helps prevent retaliatory violence, and works alongside communities most impacted by gun violence to foster safety, dignity, and connection. Previously, she was a Community Engagement Specialist with Stanford University's Walkout! Lab and the DI Project, where she supported youth fellows, co-led workshops on incarceration, abolition, and restorative justice, and helped map and document the geography of youth incarceration.

Nykia is also a published writer and thought leader whose work has appeared in outlets such as the Kansas City Star, Wichita Eagle, Essence, and Kansas Reflector, as well as in national campaigns focused on ending juvenile fines and fees and reimagining youth justice. She has contributed to research and advocacy with organizations including the National Juvenile Justice Network, Debt Free Justice, Columbia University’s Justice Lab, the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s SOUL Family initiative, and several community-based participatory research projects in Wichita. Her leadership has been recognized through honors such as NextGen Under 30 Kansas and being selected as a SOUL Family Lived Expert for HB 2536.

Across all of her roles, Nykia is committed to elevating directly impacted voices, building campaigns that tackle systemic inequities, and creating pathways for young people to move from surviving to leading change in their communities.