Katie Feifer

The longtime Research Director of The Voices and Faces Project, and also a key member of the strategic planning team that rebranded that organization as Center for Story & Witness, Katie has spent her adult life listening deeply and with compassion to survivors of gender-based violence and other human rights violations. “Feeling that you’re alone in what you’re going through can be a crushing weight to bear,” Katie says. “When you can connect with others who have experienced similar traumas and injustices, the weight becomes easier to bear, and the hope and healing become possible. That’s the power of testimony.” 

Katie has a unique public-private sector history. She was formerly a Vice President at Leo Burnett, one of the country’s most respected communications firms. She also worked as an independent consultant for a long list of Fortune 500 companies doing qualitative research, strategic planning, and meeting facilitation. Through her company Facilitate Gender Justice, she facilitated convenings for a variety of social justice-seeking organizations, helping them work on their strategic planning, problem solving, and ideation.

Katie chaired the leadership group of CounterQuo, a national coalition challenging and changing media and legal responses to sexual violence. She is a Co-Founder of World Without Exploitation, the national coalition to end human trafficking. Thinking globally and acting locally, she has served for over two decades as a rape victim advocate in San Diego. In the past few years, Katie has studied improv at La Jolla Playhouse and also earned a certificate in Restorative Justice Facilitation from University of San Diego.