Jane Aoyama-Martin

Jane Aoyama-Martin is the Executive Director of the Pace Women’s Justice Center (PWJC) at Pace Law School in White Plains, New York. Founded in 1991, PWJC is dedicated to eliminating domestic violence and elder abuse. To do so, it provides training, community education and outreach, and free civil legal services to victims and survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and elder abuse. 

Ms. Aoyama-Martin has been active in the anti-domestic violence movement throughout her professional life, and she has seen to it personally that women find their voice in the midst of such violence. She is a founding and former board member of the New York Asian Women’s Center – the first project on the East Coast to organize women on the problems of battering and sexual assault in the Asian community. 

Ms. Aoyama-Martin serves on the Board of The Havens Relief Fund Society, a private foundation that helps individuals and families overcome crises. She lectures and trains new attorneys, and for many years was a key instructor at the Intensive Trial Skills Training for Effective Representation of Battered Women, sponsored by the New York State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence. 

An active member of the Westchester Women’s Agenda, Ms. Aoyama-Martin is also involved with the Westchester County Domestic Violence Council, 9th Judicial District Gender Fairness Committee, Lawyers Committee Against Domestic Violence, New York State Maintenance Standards Coalition and Westchester Women’s Bar Association. 

Ms. Aoyama-Martin has spent most of her life in public service; her first legal job was serving the poor as a legal services attorney in upstate New York. She has worked as a New York State Assistant Attorney General, solo practitioner and senior associate in a private firm. Prior to serving as Pace Women’s Justice Center Executive Director, she supervised the New York City Legal Aid Society’s family law practice in the Bronx and Harlem, and co-supervised the Society’s city-wide domestic violence project. 

Ms. Aoyama-Martin is an important presence in the fight for basic human rights, whether it be combating domestic violence, sexual assault, elder abuse or poverty. She works tirelessly to ensure that those who are made to feel small know that they have a real voice and that they can be saved.