Jennifer Freyd, Ph.D.

Founder, President, and Chair of the Board, Center for Institutional Courage, Professor Emerit of Psychology, University of Oregon, Affiliate Professor of Psychology, University of Washington, Affiliate Professor Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies, University of Washington, and Affiliated Faculty, Women's Leadership Lab, Stanford University 
About Jennifer Freyd

I founded the Center for Institutional Courage because I am passionate about helping heal and prevent the harm of institutional betrayal, and I know that institutional courage offers a solution. I am also a psychology professor, activist, theoretician, and author. As a professor, I created and researched a number of new concepts, including institutional betrayal and institutional courage, betrayal trauma theory, and DARVO. My work is published extensively in scientific journals, as well as in op-eds and media that apply research to urgent social issues, such as gender discrimination and sexual violence. I am proud of my two books, Betrayal Trauma: The Logic of Forgetting Childhood Abuse (Harvard University Press) and Blind to Betrayal, co-authored with Pamela J. Birrell (Wiley).  Like so many others who speak about sexual violence and trauma, I have faced retaliation at times. Even so, I keep going. I strongly believe that addressing institutional betrayal through institutional courage will allow us to create a much better world.