Women Leading the Way: How Nomi Network Was Built by Women, for Women
She was eight years old.
While most children her age were learning to read and write, Nomi had already survived what no child should ever experience. Trafficked and abused by someone meant to protect her, her childhood had been stolen before it had truly begun.
When our co-founder, Diana, met Nomi in Cambodia, she was faced with a reality she could not ignore.
She could have walked away.
She didn’t.
Instead, Diana, along with her two co-founders, made a decision that would change everything for Nomi and for thousands of women and girls around the world.
She and her two co-founders started Nomi Network.
From One Girl’s Story to a Global Movement
Nomi Network was created to be the network behind Nomi, and behind every woman and girl like her.
Not just to rescue, but to restore.
Not just to respond, but to rebuild.
From the very beginning, the vision was clear: build a world where every woman and girl can reach their full potential, free from exploitation, and defined by their own choices.
Today, Nomi is a resilient young woman who radiates warmth and strength despite the trauma she has faced. Her life is a testament to what is possible when someone is given not just support, but opportunity.
Her story is not where this work ends. It is where it begins.
Women Who Chose to Act
Nomi Network was co-founded by women who refused to accept a world where exploitation is inevitable.
Diana Mao Kelly, President and Co-Founder, witnessed the realities of human trafficking firsthand in Cambodia. What she saw stayed with her. It reshaped her path.
She left behind a successful career in management consulting to pursue something greater: a solution rooted in dignity, economic empowerment, and long-term change. Her vision helped redefine how we address human trafficking, not just as a crisis to respond to, but as a system to disrupt.
Alongside her, Alissa Moore Williams and Supei Liu brought a bold, entrepreneurial spirit and a willingness to go where the need was greatest. From arts advocacy to the fashion industry, all three co-founders immersed themselvesin building solutions alongside the women Nomi Network serves.
Together, the three co-founders didn’t just start an organization.
They sparked a movement.
Built by Women. Led by Women.
At Nomi Network, women are not just at the center of the mission.
They are driving it, designing it, and leading it at every level.
This is not incidental. It is intentional.
Because the challenges women and girls face require leadership that understands those realities deeply and is committed to changing them.
Why Women’s Leadership Changes Everything
When women lead, the impact goes beyond representation.
It shapes how solutions are built.
At Nomi Network, that means programs designed with dignity at their core. It means listening first, then building alongside communities. It means focusing not only on immediate needs, but on long-term independence.
The result is not just intervention. It is transformation.
Women who once faced limited options are starting businesses, entering the workforce, continuing their education, and creating safer futures for themselves and their families.
Girls who experienced exploitation or are targeted due to their economic vulnerabilities are gaining the confidence, skills, and support to choose a different path.
This is how cycles are broken.
A Future Led by Women
Nomi was never meant to just survive.
She was meant to grow, to dream, to choose her own future.
Because a group of women chose to act, her story did not end at eight years old.
And today, because women continue to lead this work, thousands more are writing new stories of their own.
This Women’s History Month, we celebrate the women who built Nomi Network, the women who lead it today, and the women and girls around the world who are stepping into their own power.
Together, we are building a future where every woman and girl has the opportunity not just to live, but to lead.
