Got Your Back: Elizabeth Brady on Reducing the Impact of Violence in Education for Domestic Violence Awareness Month
“My long-term goal is to make myself unemployable because sexual violence is a thing of the past.” As this month is domestic violence awareness month, today’s woman dreamer, Elizabeth Brady, is the Interim Executive Director of the ARRIVE Center at SUNY. (State University of New York) A true leader in sexual assault prevention, she has consulted for the U.S. Navy, has developed several programs including SUNY’s Got Your Back and SUNY SPECTRUM- the nation’s largest conference dedicated to sexual and interpersonal violence prevention and response against members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and raised over 5 million in funding for prevention and response programs. A must read piece for every woman, Elizabeth shares her expertise on how women can stay safe and protect each other on college campuses, the biggest learnings of her career, and her next big dream.
1) You are the interim Executive Director at State University of New York. where you focus in on reducing the role of violence in education. This is incredible work. Tell us your story, and what inspired you to do this work?
I started at SUNY as the Director of Sexual and Interpersonal Violence Prevention. Over time, I helped grow and create programs that ultimately became a center and I am grateful to oversee this center. I am also grateful to serve in this role because it enables me to support colleges and universities across the country in their efforts to reduce compliance costs and ultimately reinvest resources and funding into true prevention efforts. My formal work in this space started in victim advocacy, but the topic has impacted much of my professional life. I worked in career services, where we helped women transitioning back in to the work force, and many of my clients had been referred by our community domestic violence service organization. It was through this work that I really began learning about trauma informed practices and the importance of prevention. My work and focus has obviously evolved and grown over time, but I try to remain rooted in understanding that everything I do has a purpose and will (hopefully) impact folks in a positive way.
2) You have also served in leadership roles in sexual assault prevention, such as through being a consultant with U.S Navy on this issue, and as founder of SUNY's Got Your Back program. What were some of the key learnings you had in these roles? And what are some of the key issues you are working to address?
The biggest things that I’ve learned are:
Partnerships are critical, regardless of how unconventional they may be.
You need to meet people where they are if you want to reach them.
Partnerships have been the backbone of the work that I do. Working with the United States Navy has been important to expand our reach in educational initiatives and to work together to align metrics and data so we can implement data driven prevention strategies. My program also partnered with the New York State Office of Victim Services (OVS) to develop the SUNY’s Got Your Back Program. SUNY’s Got Your Back is a comfort kit program for victims and survivors and violence. Students assemble kits at events on SUNY’s 64 campuses and then deliver them to local domestic violence shelters, hospitals, and rape crisis programs. The partnership provides us funding to run the program, enables us to provide comfort kits to victims and survivors, and also enables us to host events where we can share information about resources offered by SUNY and OVS. This also leads into the next point- meeting people where they are. Sexual and interpersonal violence is a difficult topic to discuss and college students may not always be excited to attend a full program to learn about prevention strategies. At SUNY’s Got Your Back events, we try to create a bit of a party atmosphere and host them in high traffic locations. This helps to make the topic more approachable to students and uses a philanthropic action to engage them in the process.
My long-term goal is to make myself unemployable because sexual violence is a thing of the past. In the meantime, I focus everyday on centering the margins and making sure that when we discuss sexual and interpersonal violence, we are really discussing the folks who are impacted the most. Too often, white-cis-heteronormative-women are the only folks being discussed and this needs to change. Women of color- especially black women and indigenous women- are disproportionately impacted by sexual and interpersonal violence. This is rarely discussed. LGBTQIA+ folks are disproportionately impacted and this is almost never discussed. I launched the SUNY SPECTRUM Conference in 2017- the nation’s largest conference dedicated to violence prevention and response for members of the LGBTQIA+ community- but this is only the beginning. Until we truly apply an intersectional lens to our work, we won’t be able to accomplish what we need to.
3) What is your advice to students living on college campuses in terms of protecting their safety. And what are some things universities need to be doing to keep students safe?
I would rather encourage folks to look out for the safety of others than to tell them how to protect themselves. There are risk reduction strategies to minimize your own risk of experiencing violence, but this can’t be the only effort that we are making. Instead, effort is better placed in encouraging students to challenge sexist, racist, homophobic, and transphobic language, to create safe spaces in their every day lives- so their friends can feel comfortable to come to them if something ever does happen to them- and to arm themselves with resources in their local community to make referrals if needed. Also (if folks really want to make a difference) consider reading Sexual Citizens: A Landmark Study of Sex, Power, and Assault on Campus by Dr. Jennifer S. Hirsch and Dr. Shamus Khan. It’s the most relevant text on the subject of our time.
4) Outside of your work, what are some of your hobbies and interests? And what is an interesting fact about you that you would like to share?
I love knitting, I have two sisters, and I recently got engaged! I also very recently discovered that I love to cook.
5) As the platform for women dreamers, what is your next big dream?
I’ve been working to develop donor relationships for the past few years and my next goal is to establish a scholarship program to aid victims and survivors of sexual and interpersonal violence complete their degree. Too often individuals who experience violence might not complete their degree (for a number of reasons). In not completing their degree, they are more likely to be economically disadvantaged. Poverty is- in and of itself-a risk factor for sexual violence. This ultimately creates a violent cycle of poverty and violence. I would love to play a small part in helping to break that cycle.
Thank you Elizabeth for sharing your story with us! We are excited to have you in our global women’s network!
Bio: Elizabeth Brady is the Interim Executive Director of the ARRIVE Center at The State University of New York. She has significant experience in sexual and interpersonal violence prevention and victim support services on and off college campuses and has brought in more than $5 million in external funding for violence prevention and response programming. In her role at SUNY, she has developed several statewide and national programs including SUNY’s Got Your Back, a program that educates thousands of New Yorkers annually on violence prevention strategies and available resources while providing comfort kits for victims and survivors of violence. She also created SUNY SPECTRUM- the nation’s largest conference dedicated to sexual and interpersonal violence prevention and response against members of the LGBTQIA+ community. Elizabeth has an MBA from Western Connecticut State University and a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies from Southern Connecticut State University. She graduated Cum Laude from the University of Scranton with her B.A. in Women’s Studies/B.S. in Counseling and Human Services.