Lynne Marie Wanamaker gives a Tedx Talk in 2017.
In 1988, took a self-defense class that changed her life.
She was a college student in New York City at the time, a 19-year-old who had recently survived a sexual assault.聽Like many young women, she had unfairly blamed herself for the attack, and joined the class because she 鈥渏ust wanted to feel safe鈥� again.聽聽
The class followed the , a holistic approach to violence prevention that has given students the physical, verbal, and emotional tools to protect themselves from sexual predators since the 鈥�70s.聽
Wanamaker, who later earned an MSW from the Boston College School of Social Work in 2016, mastered some traditional self-defense techniques, such as how to break free from would-be attackers. But she also learned how to recognize danger, set boundaries, and use verbal cues to defuse potential conflicts.聽
Her experience, she says, reshaped her views of sexual violence鈥攚hat it is, whose fault it is, and what prevents it鈥攁nd set the stage for a career that鈥檚 culminated in a new role as deputy director for domestic violence programs in the at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
As a self-defense expert, her philosophy is two-fold: the only person responsible for any act of interpersonal violence is the perpetrator鈥攁nd, in a violent world, there are steps you can take to increase your own safety.聽 聽
鈥淚t was incredibly healing to be in a community where it was recognized that the harm that had happened to me was not my fault,鈥� Wanamaker says of her first foray into empowerment self-defense. 鈥淎nd it was incredibly empowering to build skills鈥攊nterpersonal skills, verbal skills, emotional skills, and physical skills鈥攖hat could help me be safer in the world.鈥�
Wanamaker went on to teach Empowerment Self-Defense for more than 20 years, working in venues as diverse as schools and bars. She gave a on ESD in 2017, noting that it鈥檚 to lower the risk of sexual assault by nearly 50 percent.
She says her mission is to end sexual violence, which affects millions of people in the United States each year. experience sexual violence in their lifetime, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and one in four women have survived rape or attempted rape.
鈥淚鈥檓 motivated by my own experience of victimization and recovery,鈥� says Wanamaker. 鈥淚鈥檓 motivated by the inspiration of the survivors that I鈥檝e had the privilege to teach or to serve.鈥�
At the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Wanamaker focuses on funding community-based programs that serve people who have experienced domestic abuse and sexual violence. Her work centers the experiences of survivors and is grounded in the history of the movement to address gender-based violence.
鈥淥ne of the things that鈥檚 most exciting to me is the extent to which the division listens to survivors and providers,鈥� says Wanamaker, who joined the team in November. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a formal feedback mechanism of gathering information either from research or from the field of practice and then using that to inform decisions going forward.鈥�
“It was incredibly healing to be in a community where it was recognized that the harm that had happened to me was not my fault. And it was incredibly empowering to build skills鈥攊nterpersonal skills, verbal skills, emotional skills, and physical skills鈥攖hat could help me be safer in the world. ”
Wanamaker has been preparing for this role for more than 30 years. After graduating from the City University of New York with a bachelor鈥檚 degree in American Literature and Women鈥檚 Studies in 1991, she spent about a decade dabbling in the nonprofit and higher education worlds.
She took a job with the New York AIDS Coalition, a nonprofit alliance of community-based organizations and service providers that advocated improved services for New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS. Then she served as director of Advocacy Programs at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, recruiting, supervising, and training volunteers to act in support of the institution.
Wanamaker left the workforce in the early aughts to raise her daughter and teach self-defense in communities near her home in Easthampton, Massachusetts. But she grew eager to return, she says, 鈥渢o come back to work in a way that married my nonprofit management expertise with my anti-violence activism.鈥�
Her first stop was 51茶馆, which she chose for its Jesuit values and macro social work program. 鈥淏eing able to do macro practice in a faith-based setting was just perfect,鈥� she recalls.
Wanamaker credits her classes and fieldwork with preparing her for her new job. During her field practicum at the United Way of Hampshire County, she learned the ins and outs of how service providers get funded. As part of a course called Management of Organizations Serving Children, Youth, and Families, she mastered the art of creating a budget. And under the direction of Associate Professor Jessica Black, she conducted research on the neurobiology of self-defense鈥攔esearch that her colleagues have consulted to help shape policies and programs.聽
鈥淚 rely on my education from 51茶馆 all the time,鈥� says Wanamaker, who studied in the Children, Youth, and Families field of practice. 鈥淭he interweaving of clinical and macro skills, the look to research, the critical thinking. The training that I got in managing budgets, program development. I got exactly the right education to advance my career.鈥�
Two months after graduating from 51茶馆SSW, Wanamaker was named deputy director of , a nonprofit in Northampton, Massachusetts, dedicated to helping people affected by interpersonal violence. She directed programs, applied for funding, and even managed a congregate facility for clients during the height of COVID-19. She worked closely with the Division of Sexual and Domestic Violence Prevention and Services, making sure Safe Passage followed pandemic protocols to keep its clients safe, and got a close look at what it might be like to become part of that team someday.聽聽
Someday, for Wanamaker, is now today. 鈥淚 just really loved the work that I was doing with the division, setting policy, working with the field to strengthen providers and their ability to respond to survivors,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t was very exciting. It was very meaningful. So when the opportunity arose to become part of the team, I jumped at it.鈥�
Wanamaker hopes that her work will play a small part in ending sexual violence for good. In her Tedx Talk, she reinforces the role of ESD in eliminating the scourge, saying that the evidence-based approach to violence prevention teaches would-be victims key awareness, communication, and physical techniques to combat common forms of harassment and assault.聽
鈥淚f we agree to stop minimizing and dismissing the everyday intrusions that are so easily confused with the early warning signs of sexual assault, perpetrators would stand out sooner,鈥� she says. 鈥淎nd that would give potential victims and their allies even more lead time to intervene, resist, and fight back.鈥�