Katie Koestner, date-rape survivor and sexual assault prevention advocate, will discuss her survival on Wednesday, October 29, at noon in the Hampton Room of the Elizabeth Hubert Malott Commons on the Scripps College campus. There will be a question and answer session with Katie after the discussion. Reservations are required for the event; please call the Malott Commons Office, (909) 607-8508. This event is sponsored by the Malott Commons and the Scripps Activities and Residential Life Office.
Koestner, who appeared on the June 3, 1991 cover of Time Magazine, has received national attention speaking out against a crime of silence – date-rape. In 1993, Koestner completed a HBO project, “No Visible Bruises: The Katie Koestner Story.” After graduating in 1994 from the College of William and Mary in Virginia, she has presented her program “No/Yes” to thousands of students at more than 800 colleges, high schools and military institutions.
Koestner is a Virginia State-trained peer educator and sexual assault counselor who went public with her story of date-rape in 1990. Outraged at the inadequacies of response from William and Mary to her victimization, she took her case to the media. She has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Geraldo, NBC Nightly News, CNBC Talk Live, Larry King Live, and Entertainment Tonight. Her activities as an advocate extend to working for passage of federal sexual assault legislation.
Very involved in educating the college and high school communities, Koestner was the keynote speaker for both the East and West Coast 4th annual Student Conference on Campus Sexual Violence in 1995, and keynote again for the East Coast Conference in 1998. She has served as a consultant to schools on the revision of their policies with regard to sexual assault on college campuses, and co-authored campus guidebooks on sexual assault; Sexual Assault on Campus: What Every College Needs to Know about Protecting Victims, Providing Just Adjudication, and Complying with Federal Law, and Total Sexual Assault Risk Management Strategies for Colleges.
Koestner is currently working on a new book, Without Consent, an autobiographical travelogue of her years of presentations to college and high school students.