Brittany Piper, a rape survivor and leading national expert and advocate on sexual violence prevention and recovery, will speak on Monday, April 18, at 7 p.m., in Messenger Auditorium in the Darbeth Fine Arts Center. The event is sponsored by the Southwestern College Student Foundation (STUFU) in recognition of Sexual Assault Awareness Month. There is no admission charge and the public is invited to attend.

Piper is a violence prevention educator, survivor, and healing coach. Her work has been recognized by The United States Army, the Laura Bush Institute of Women’s Health, Cosmopolitan, and Elite Daily.

“For years I've been told ‘you're strong, you're so inspiring, you're brave, I want to be like you one day,’” Piper says. “But I always have to set the scene, that despite where I am today, for nearly 10 years I allowed my life to be completely wrecked. Starting at the age of 15, I experienced life-altering brokenness and allowed myself to live in that darkness for too long. My pain festered over the years and came out in dangerous ways, reappearing like catastrophic bombs in my life, obliterating everything I cherished.”

Piper says she reached a ‘concrete bottom’ before she was able to retake control and get her life back. 

“I found that when we brave that brokenness, when we salvage our stories of suffering, we also open the door to be a light for others who are still lost in the dark,” Piper says. “When we allow our pain to transform us, that empathy and compassion that are rooted in our experiences become profound weapons of so much good. Now, for the past 10 years, I have found that my greatest purposes have been rooted in my deepest pains.”