Joya is originally from Springfield, Vermont, however, as the daughter of UN employee she grew up overseas. She received her Bachelors’ Degree from Middlebury College, where she double-majored in Religion and French. After graduating, Joya spent a year in Sri Lanka working for a local women’s rights organization, followed by a public health organization. She then moved to Washington D.C to work for a Congressional Commission examining sexual violence in prisons and jails. Following her work on the Hill, Joya earned a master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts, studying human security with a focus on gender-based violence. Prior to joining GHC, Joya worked as a Gender Specialist on an agriculture project in Ghana, a contributing writer for PolicyMic, and trained to be a volunteer at the DC Rape Crisis Center.