Herina "Koko" Ayot is a Senior Policy Associate at the CUNY Institute for State & Local Governance, where she supports training and technical assistance efforts with agency partners to advance more equitable and effective responses to harm. An emotional architect turned policy thinker, she draws equally from clinical practice, criminological research, and narrative craft, bringing a multidisciplinary lens to the systems and people she studies.

A psychotherapist by trade, her clinical and research background centers on justice-involved populations, with scholarly work examining shame, self-concept, and desistance from crime. Prior to joining ISLG, Koko worked as a behavioral health counselor with The Fortune Society, providing services to justice-involved individuals, and previously served as a Clinical Research Specialist in the UK. Formatively, she spent nearly a decade in higher education administration as the Assistant Director of NYU Meyers' Nursing Research doctoral program, an experience that sharpened her understanding of how institutions can better serve the people inside them.

Koko holds a Master's in Clinical Counseling for Mental Health and Wellness, an MFA in Creative Writing from NYU, and an MRes in Criminological Research from The University of Manchester (UK). She is a mother of twins, a devoted yogi, and an adventurous home cook, often supervised by her dog, Nikki Giovanni.