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March 16, 1999

Speaker Biographies

Media Contact: Betty Gabrielli

 

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KATIE KOESTNER has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, and Larry King Live, among others, and has been the subject of a TIME magazine cover story and numerous articles in the leading newspapers and publications. She has spoken to hundreds of thousands of students at nearly 700 colleges, high schools, military institutions, youth groups and service organizations, in 47 states and internationally.

Koestner earned degrees in public policy and women's studies from the College of William and Mary and is a Virginia State-trained and certified peer-educator and sexual assault counselor. In 1994 she founded Campus Outreach Services, Inc. to fight sexual assault in every possible way. The organization has been influential in forming sexual assault policy at the national level and has worked too successfully lobby Congress on the Sexual Assault Victims' Bill of Rights and the Accuracy in Campus Crime Reporting Act.

Koestner has contributed to an anthology on the history of the anti-sexual violence movement and is the co-author of Sexual Assault on Campus: What Every College Needs to Know About Protecting Victims, Providing for Just Adjudication, and Complying with Federal Laws (1995), a guidebook on model campus sexual assault policies, and Total Sexual Assault Risk Management Strategies for Colleges (1997). She is the subject of an HBO Lifestories Docudrama, "No Visible Bruises: The Katie Koestner Story."

DIANA COURVANT is a transsexual activist dedicated to addressing issues of domestic violence survival specific to trans and intersex survivors. She is the acting director of the Survivor Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing access to gender segregated public resources for people whose minds, bodies, or souls defy social expectations of sex or gender. She founded the Survivor Project in 1997 after 4 1/2 years activism against domestic violence influenced shelters in Portland, Oregon, to begin outreach to transsexual survivors.

The Survival Project's immediate goal was to provide assistance to other agencies in training, education, and writing policies to aid survivors of domestic violence who are transsexual, transgender or intersex. However, it quickly became clear that homeless shelters and some other agencies shared similar needs and concerns with domestic violence resources, and the Project promptly expanded its mission.

Diana's leadership has been recognized by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, JustOut newsmagazine and Equality Begins at Home, a nationally coordinated set of state and local actions.

     

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