Meet our Fall cover Girl, Jennifer Storm of Victim Witness Assistance Program

Jennifer Storm was born and raised near Allentown, PA and attended Northampton High School. She graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor of Science in Rehabilitation Services and a Master’s Degree in Organizational Management from The University of Phoenix.

In August 2002, Ms. Storm joined Victim Witness Assistance Program as the organization’s second Executive Director. Before joining VWAP, Ms. Storm was the first full time director of the Statewide Pennsylvania Rights Coalition, a non-profit coalition dedicated to securing and defending fully inclusive civil rights for LGBT people in Pennsylvania. During her tenure at Pennsylvania Rights Coalition, Ms. Storm worked diligently on obtaining inclusive hate crime legislation.

In 2002, the Pennsylvania legislature passed one of the most inclusive hate crime statues in the country. Governor Edward G. Rendell appointed Ms. Storm as a commissioner to the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency. She was later appointed to the Homeland Security, Law Enforcement and Justice Systems Advisory committees where she also serves on the Terrorism Prevention and Local Law Enforcement Subcommittee.

Ms. Storm is active in many local committees and on boards such as: The Greater Harrisburg Foundation EGAL Board, Dauphin County Domestic Violence Taskforce, Joint Investigative Taskforce, Dauphin County Elder Abuse Taskforce, Northern Dauphin Human Services Advisory Panel and Criminal Justice Advisory Board of Dauphin County.

Ms. Storm has a unique story that she uses in the promotion of her non-profit organization and has recently chronicled in her memoirs. Jennifer Storm’s first memoir, Blackout Girl, tells the haunting story of her downward spiral into addiction that began when she was raped at twelve-years-old. She remained on a dangerous, self-destructive path for ten dark years, until one day she awoke in the hospital after attempting to commit suicide and realized she needed help.

Now, Leave the Light On offers a deeper look into Jennifer’s inspiring story of survival and transformation. With fearless honesty, she chronicles her journey as she embarked upon a new life in recovery, finally facing her traumatic past, her buried emotions, and the long-hidden truth about her sexuality. Jennifer holds nothing back in this courageous memoir.

Ms. Storm has marketed herself and her organization in a highly effective manner.  When she came on board as executive director of Victim/Witness Assistance program the organization did not have a uniform marketing plan.  Ms. Storm completely reinvented the agency’s image by creating a brand identity and unique marketing campaign for our agency. In there 21 years as a non-profit agency they have never had any uniformity within the agency; brochures were a kaleidoscope of different formats, colors and themes.  You would have never known that each of them came from the same organization.  There were no professional materials to give to prospective donors or clients detailing their services, history or mission nor did they have a webpage.  Jennifer applied for and received a highly competitive Organizational Capacity Building Grant from The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency to fund this agency overhaul and contracted with The Bravo Group, a local public relations firm. The purpose was to create a more professional image for the agency and to create more awareness of the services they offer. 

Jennifer Storm is the ultimate survivor turned thriver. Ms. Storm speaks specifically about why as survivors, it is so important to take the next step into advocacy for victims’ rights. As a child and teen survivor of sexual assault Ms. Storm talks about her personal struggles and how she made the decision one day to end her silence and use her voice to help others. She uses her personal story to relate to and offer assistance and advocacy to others.  Her media appearances are vast, and include frequent appearances on all major networks including, ABC, FOX, NBC, NPR, CBS and PBS as the county spokesperson for victims rights. She had done over 500 media & radio interviews, both taped and live, in the past five years. She has appeared on local and national talk shows including The Harrisburg View and WITF’s prime time public affairs show SMARTTALK, Dr. Drew Live, Recovery Coast to Coast and many more.  In 2002, Ms Storm also publicly debated Oliver North live on his syndicated talk show Common Sense with Oliver North. She has been profiled or appeared in the following publications; Curve Magazine, The Advocate, Time Magazine, Rolling Stone, WE Magazine for Women, Women Magazine and many more.