Hello!
I'm Jess! I'm a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and intimate partner violence, an advocate for change and an expert in sexual violence trauma & prevention.
I’ve used my passion for violence and survivor advocacy as a catalyst for change for more than a decade. In 2012, freshly graduated from Hamline University, armed with a degree in Psychology, I began advocating with local sexual violence agencies providing one-on-one counseling support & hospital advocacy to survivors of sexual violence. I shifted my focus in 2014 to managing and training volunteers and staff activists through state mandated trainings.
During my career, I realized that we can’t keep just pulling people from the river of violence and decided to swim up stream to prevent the violence in the first place. I developed and implemented 6th -12 grade curriculum on healthy relationships and violence prevention and continued to expand my scope of focus to public speaking and organizational program support and execution.
Today, I’ve had the honor of crafting and delivering more than 100 keynote speeches and presentations across a variety of sexual violence related topics to diverse audiences; all aimed at preventing sexual violence. These topics include; sexual violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment, rape culture, social media safety, domestic violence, intimate-partner violence, healthy relationships, toxic masculinity, trauma informed care, confidentiality & ethics in sexual violence advocacy, mandated reporting for advocates working with sexual & domestic violence victims as well as advocates working with adults with disabilities, campus sexual assault, oppression, racism, and feminist theory/history.
I’d love to engage with you and your organization on any or all of these topics. I specialize in interactive and conversational keynote speaking, customized sexual violence curriculum design, program development and implementation, and trauma informed care training. Together, we can, “End Sexual Violence, One Adult and One Conversation At a Time”
-Jess
