Amanda Powers was previously the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) & Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) Program and Policy Analyst at the Office of Crime Victim Services (OCVS) at the Wisconsin Department of Justice. Prior to assuming the VAWA & VOCA Program and Policy Analyst role in June 2022, Amanda served as the OCVS Grant Specialist – VOCA Lead since 2016 and VOCA Administrator since 2013. She was with OCVS for 11 years, working with and supporting victim services agencies in administering their VOCA subgrants as well as collaborating with stakeholders and statewide victim service coalitions to improve victim services in Wisconsin.
While at OCVS, Amanda Co-Chaired the OCVS Advisory Committee's Housing Workgroup which created a Housing First Best Practice Recommendation for Wisconsin. Amanda participated in the Systems Subcommittee for Wisconsin's MMIW Taskforce and briefly served as an Executive Committee member for the MMIW Taskforce. Nationally, Amanda served a term on the National Association of Victim Assistance Administrators (NAVAA) Board where she was the Board Secretary for both years of her term.
She graduated from Carthage College with a BA in History and Spanish. During her time at Carthage, she spent a semester abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina studying the Methodology of Genocide and interning at Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) an Argentinean Jewish community organization.