Carla Westlund
PAVE Speaker
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Speech Topics:
Trauma, Sexual Assault, Campus Sexual Assault, Healing, Survivor Support
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Biography
Carla Westlund is a recent sexual assault survivor and new addition to the P.A.V.E. family and couldn’t be more proud. In the early morning hours of January 7th 2017, Carla was raped and held captive by a man pretending to be her Uber driver, and her life has never been the same. Instead of letting the experience weaken her, she instead felt the importance to share her story on social media along with the life saving tactics she used to survive despite feeling pressure from society and nurses at the hospital that this was something she “didn’t need to talk about” to anyone. Carla felt the opposite, that this is exactly the topic that needs to be talked about in order to provide healing for herself/others, bring awareness to this silent subject and end the accepted cycle of sexual assault.
Carla posted a status on Facebook and through the power of social media after receiving over 1000 likes/shares, she was connected with Angela Rose, the founder of P.A.V.E., who then took her under their wing and provided incredible support, advocacy, and top notch investigative skills. Carla went on to tell her story on FOX News, CrimeWatch Daily, and the Today Show as well as several radio interviews. She received incredible support and healing from the public as well as negative feedback which only gave her the confidence that there is much more work to be done on this misguided subject.
Carla’s message to the world urges how important it is for other survivors to not feel any shame in their experience and speak out fearlessly, or else she believes we are only suppressing ourselves and allowing this horrendous trend to continue. Today she is still working with P.A.V.E. diligently in capturing her attacker, while also giving back by using her story to help educate kids of all ages on the misconceptions of sexual assault. She feels incredibly lucky to be a part of this journey.
Media and Speaking Examples
