Tia Payne
Tia Payne is a survivor-leader, nonprofit executive, and systems builder dedicated to advancing safety, dignity, and long-term stability for survivors of intimate partner violence and trauma. As the Founder and CEO of Legacy31, she leads at the intersection of faith-informed advocacy, direct service, and organizational strategy, creating systems that are both compliant and compassionate. Through Legacy31, Tia focuses on education, advocacy, prevention, and community engagement, ensuring that survivors are supported beyond crisis toward sustainable independence, with particular attention to the intersection of trauma and faith.
With over 15 years of experience in victim advocacy and social services, Tia has served in multiple leadership roles, including Director of Shelter and Housing Services at Hope and Healing Survivor Resource Center and Director of Operations at The Genesis Program. She specializes in building trauma-informed systems that enhance both survivor outcomes and staff sustainability, overseeing crisis shelters, HUD and VAWA programs, CARF accreditation compliance, and leadership development across multidisciplinary teams. Tia also develops and delivers workshops such as “Healthy Relationships” for youth and families, and “When Trauma Meets Faith,” bridging gaps between faith communities and secular agencies to provide respectful, trauma-informed care.
Beyond her executive work, Tia is a sought-after writer, speaker, and trainer who amplifies survivor voices and strengthens organizational leadership capacity. Her philosophy emphasizes survivor autonomy, ethical leadership, and building intentional systems that honor the whole person. Tia’s career reflects a commitment to integrity, clarity, and purpose, underpinned by her belief that real change happens when survivors are supported by structures designed to hold them well and communities are equipped to respond with dignity and care.
• Ohio Domestic Violence Network Advocacy Essentials Certification
• Leap Cohort 7
• Essentials of Victim Advocacy
• Rise and Lead Leadership Program
• Child Family Leadership Exchange
• Nationally Accredited Victim Advocate
• The University of Akron- Associate's
• Kent State University- B.A.Sc.
• Employee of the Year 2018
• 15-Year Employee Recognition
• Rise and Lead
• DV Network
• Child Family Leadership Exchange
• Valor U.S.
• Ohio Domestic Violence Network Advocacy Essentials
• South Street Ministries (upcoming involvement)
• Homelessness and Housing Stability Initiatives
• Advocates Paying Advocates
What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to my relationship with God. I've been through therapy and those were great practices for me, but along the way, due to being a survivor and especially being raised in a church, I actually lost what I would say was my connection with God. You automatically connect God to whatever your pain is, like 'you could have stopped this and you didn't.' I truthfully believe that once I was able to reconcile a lot of those questions and different things that I had about who God was, and once that reconciliation came, I was really able to start exploring my own personal relationship with God and just being authentic in that relationship with God. I think that's what's helped me the most.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I received was that if no one makes room for you, sometimes you really do have to kick the door in. Someone told me that when I was complaining about the gap in services for faith-based survivors. Unfortunately, in the field that I work in, being a Christian is not well received. I've been tokenized as the faith-based woman when it comes time for that, so sometimes it's not very welcoming. I was passionate about bridging the faith-based angle, but it was not well received when I was working in the agency. So I took a step back from 2019 to 2022 and created Legacy 31, because that's what was needed. Someone needed to bridge that gap, and it was not being heard when I was working in the agency. When I ended up going back in 2022, we had created a space to be able to offer that to survivors that come in the door. It was due to me branching off on my own and becoming my own entity.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
My advice is to not come in with a saviorism mentality. It is very hard working with people who've experienced some type of interpersonal violence. You need to come in knowing that you're here to help them along the way, but not be the expert in their story, because they're actually the expert. You have to be okay if what you would want to suggest is not what they implement on their journey. The savior wants you to do A, B, C, and D, and then we're going to equal E, but it just really does not work like that in this field. They maintain their autonomy in their story, and they are the expert of their story. We are here just to really be a helping hand, to encourage, to give resources, to help with safety planning, and all of those types of things. That is our role. Our role is not to control what their outcome is going to be.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge in my field is having the conversation of trauma and faith. Churches really don't want to deal with it, and I personally think it's because churches teach how awesome God is and how good God is, so when we couple that theology with trauma, it doesn't mix very well. In the advocacy field that is not faith-based, you're going to meet someone who believes God is going to be a part of their healing journey, and the question is how are you as an agency going to handle it, even if it makes you uncomfortable, because maybe you're not a spiritual person, maybe you're atheist, or you don't believe in theology. That shouldn't impact how we serve who this whole survivor is. As for opportunities, I'm exploring different avenues for grants to expand the work that I do. I've been submitting proposals to different organizations for workshops within community conventions. I've recently been approved on a marketplace called Advocates Paying Advocates where I've been developing digital toolkits for people to download, including tools like 'Faith Informed, Not Faith Forced' to help advocates work with faith-based survivors, and 'Strength Without Harm' to help men in the field.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Being a person of integrity is most important to me. I want to have integrity and good character. I know a lot of times we put on our forward-facing personality when we're out in public, but I want to be that same person when I'm at home. I want people to know that they can come to me with authenticity and they'll get authentic truth from me. I don't sugarcoat things. Just being that person of integrity is one of the values that I hold dear, because I think that takes you so much further. I don't want to mute who I am as a person. I've often found myself having to do that in the advocacy field because I'm Christian and I'm the faith-based person, but they want to swallow what makes them comfortable but not swallow the whole person of who I am. I found that difficult to continue doing, which is partially the reason why I chose to resign recently. I wanted to be authentic to who I am and who I believe God has called me to be. I gave up a very lucrative job because I wanted to be authentic to who God called me to be, and that meant my integrity had to match in whatever room that I was in.
