Anne K. Ream

Anne’s groundbreaking book Lived Through This is a memoir of her multi-year, multi-country journey spent listening to the stories of survivors of gender-based violence. As Anne traveled the United States and other countries interviewing survivors, she met so many people hungering to give voice to their experiences. “Time and again,” she says, “people told me, ‘I want to find a space where I know my story will be honored.’” The Voices and Faces Project, the non-profit organization Anne founded in 2006, was conceived to be that kind of space, where witness is made possible and advocacy finds new inspiration. The Voices and Faces Project is now Center for Story & Witness, where Anne serves as Chief Vision Officer.

A passionate believer in media as a tool to create social change, Anne is a founding board member of Art Works for Change, an advisory board member of RAINN (the country’s largest anti sexual violence organization), and a founding Co-Chair of World Without Exploitation, the national coalition to end human trafficking. She also serves as Board Chair for Justice for Migrant Women.

Anne’s awards for her work on behalf of women and girls include End Violence Against Women International’s Visionary Award, Soroptimist International’s Women Making a Difference Award, Apne Aap’s Last Girl Award, and the National Sexual Violence Resource Council’s Visionary Voice Award, which was presented to Anne at a 2012 Clinton Presidential Center ceremony. A former Senior Vice President and Group Creative Director at Leo Burnett USA, Anne has been named one of People’s “Heroes Among Us,” and one of “Chicago’s Top 40″ by the Chicago Tribune, in an article highlighting movement makers and opinion shapers who “make the city great” while creating change on a national level. In 2022 Anne was named one of Chicago’s “Lit 50,” in recognition of her work using story to create social change in her home city and beyond.

Anne’s writing has appeared in the American Prospect, Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, and Washington Post. A passionate fan of all things rock ’n’ roll, Anne is a contributor to The Cambridge Companion to Bob Dylan, and a regular contributor to NewCity, where she writes about the intersection between music, gender, and social justice. In everything she does, Anne is guided by a belief in the power of story to alter understanding and call the culture to action.