Ioana began volunteering with JUFJ right before the pandemic and served as a District Captain and on the Maryland Core Team before joining the staff on the first day of the Maryland General Assembly 2024 legislative session as a Maryland Community Organizer. Experiences of growing up in a totalitarian dictatorship and facing displacement as a refugee inspire Ioana’s passion for building community and harnessing collective power to enact structural change, and she is very excited to continue pursuing this work alongside JUFJ.

Prior to 2024, Ioana worked as a policy advocate for the Job Opportunities Task Force, where she led efforts to expand occupational licensing opportunities for immigrants and collaborated in efforts to promote equity in transit projects, pass paid family and medical leave, and limit criminal legal system fines and fees. And, prior to that, Ioana led another life as an educator, serving as a high school mathematics teacher in DC Public Schools, as the undergraduate research program coordinator at the University of Maryland, as an after-school arts educator, and in various other mentoring and tutoring roles.

In her free time, you can find Ioana reading, playing with her toddler, and volunteer organizing. Ioana serves on the Board of Directors of Pro-Choice Maryland, on the Prince George’s County Commission for Women, and is a chapter core leader for Bend the Arc Maryland. She uses she/her/hers pronouns.