NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) — As a child, Sanu Dieng witnessed domestic violence in her home. As a young woman in college she experienced it herself.

“I know firsthand how it feels to be in that relationship, what it feels like to go back after everyone tells you not to, and also what it feels like to start to heal and renew yourself,” Dieng said.

After graduating from Hampton University, Dieng went into banking and finance, but made the transition into family violence services. She is now the executive director of Transitions Family Violence Services in Hampton, where she has worked for more than 14 years, using her personal experience to help others gain emotional wealth.

“In some spaces where people say, it would never be me, it couldn’t be this kind of person, I tell folks, I don’t look like your typical survivor,” Dieng said, “but there are so many of us that are out there.”

During the pandemic when schools and offices shuttered, the shelter stayed open. Dieng lead her tireless team as they responded to a surge in domestic violence calls.

“We were all hands on deck to include myself, answering hotline calls, going to the emergency shelter,” she said. “It required all of us to wrap our arms around it and be creative about how to engage people when they were locked in their homes.”

As a wife and mother, her family is her joy, and an inspiration to others as they work to bring peace into their own lives.

“To see them go from hurt to healed is just an amazing feeling,” Dieng said.

Her innovative prevention programs and initiatives earned her the Visionary Voice Award from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. She currently sits on the board of the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence.

As a finalist for the Remarkable Woman award, as in her work to eliminate intimate violence and sex trafficking, she remains humble and hopeful.

“If I do have the opportunity to win this contest,” she said, “I think it’s for every survivor and Black girl that thought she couldn’t be more so. I understand that I represent more than just myself.”