One of the things that provides my life with a lot of meaning is sharing my story with others, in hopes that a piece of my experience might help transform another person's life. Currently, I am a part of the Survivor's Speakers Bureau at BARCC, which means that I went through a day-long training on telling my story of sexual trauma to different groups of people. Thanks to this brilliant training, I can now summarize a 15-year story of sexual trauma and healing in 5-minutes in a way that allows time and space for lots of questions. The questions are,... Continue reading

I just bought Stephen Levine's book, A Year to Live. In this book, Levine explores what it is like to live in the face of death. He chronicles his personal journey of imagining his own death, and how deepening his relationship to death brought him more fully into his own life. In these past few months, I have felt my own priorities shifting in a seismic way, feeling more rooted in the myself and clear about who and how I want to be in the world. This expresses itself as a refreshed understanding of what is really important in life,... Continue reading

I read an article in the NY Times this weekend about how spending money on experiences makes you happier than spending money on stuff. Having just bought a new house with my husband, Marc, this article, of course, made me immediate question whether I should have taken the down payment money and gone on a trip around the world, or finally invested in those surfing lessons in Baja. And then this weekend, we had some friends over for the first time at our new place, and it filled the house and my spirit with warmth. To see people I love... Continue reading

In 2008, I created a presentation for a nonprofit management class at Boston College's Carroll School of Management on the messaging and funding challenges for organizations that work in the sexual violence arena. This work came out of my experience as a volunteer at a local rape crisis center and nearly ten years of development and fundraising experience. My biggest insight as a fundraiser, and as a human, is that messaging is as much as what people hear as it is what you say. And the fact of the matter is, when someone says rape, most people tune out because... Continue reading

Al Franken thought it would be a good idea to revoke funding from companies that prevent victims of sexual assault from pressing criminal charges, like KBR, who allegedly tried to stop an employee who was gang-raped in Iraq from pressing charges against her attackers. The article on E-News Park Forest focused on the fact that 30 out of 40 Republicans voted against this. Who really knows why these Senators voted against this amendment. I'm going to assume that there was something else in this bill that these Republicans, who are good people with wives and sisters and daughters, were really... Continue reading

Roman Polanski's bail set at a fraction of his net worth Continue reading

Dear Governor Patrick, I'm writing as your constituent to urge you to sign the $400K included in the FY2010 supplemental budget for the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Program. (Line Item 4510-0810 of the Department of Public Health). I also urge you to match these funds of $600K from the Executive Office of Health and Human Services so that funding to these important programs can be fully restored. The SANE Program is critical to survivors of rape and sexual assault, but is only one of what is already too few important programs that support survivors. I am a survivor of childhood... Continue reading

If there is a crime to get away with, it is rape. Only 16% of rapists will ever spend a day in jail. Read about it on the RAINN website. Artwork by Paul Pierson Continue reading

I recently met Katie Simon, a senior at Concord Academy, and the founder of this amazing group called Minga. Minga is an organization focused on organizing youth to raise awareness about the child sex trade. Katie's opinion is that we have have an opportunity to educate youth so that they won't become the next generation of pimps and offenders. This year, they are reaching out to 5,000 youth through empowerment and awareness events. As is often the case, bringing voice and breaking silence on the issue is the most important action step we can take. As we were talking, I... Continue reading

I started speaking as a survivor speaker for the Boston Rape Crisis Center about a year ago. I speak in a variety of venues to different groups of speakers about my personal experiences with sexual abuse and assault in hopes of inspiring people and opening their minds. I began speaking for several reasons: I am in a position in my life - personally and professionally - where I am privileged to be able to speak freely about these experiences without repercussion. Because of that, I feel an obligation to do so in honor of the many women and men who... Continue reading

What would you say to your closest friend if she were raped or sexual assaulted? How would you respond? What words of comfort would you offer him? Sometimes, we are afraid to say anything. We are afraid to say the wrong thing, or not the best thing. Or, we might be afraid that there is nothing we could say that would bring comfort. Many years ago, I organized an event that challenged people to find something to say to a survivor. We created a display of hearts with messages of hope and healing to survivors. With a little encouragement, so... Continue reading

When I was in college at Brown University, there was a date rape case that received national media attention thanks to John Stossel at 20/20. The campus was in an uproar over whether or not a male student had sexually assaulted a female student while they were both allegedly intoxicated. The story quickly devolved into a he-said, she-said fiasco, and the narrative around the story was about whether women lied about being raped and whether women who drank deserved what they got. The larger story was quickly forgotten. At the time, I was enraged by this, and wrote a very... Continue reading