Sessions
#Thisisallofus - Survivor Panel
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM Tue
Hilary Simmons-Sand is a native of Southern Oregon where she was raised on a ranch in a small tight knit community. She found her passion in running at the age of 12 and quickly became successful winning State and Regional titles and setting national age group long distance records. She received a running scholarship to the University of Portland, competing in Cross-Country and Track. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies and a Masters in Special Education. She taught middle school before taking time out to raise her family. Hilary is married to her husband, Wes of 21 years and has 2 children, Maddie and Will.
In her 30’s she started having flashbacks of sexual abuse by her running coach when she was a teenager. She knew that therapy was the right decision and thought she might only need a few sessions. After eight years of hard work she made a full recovery from PTSD and is working on forgiving her perpetrator.
Currently Hilary lives in Clackamas County and works as an Instructional Assistant for the West Linn-Wilsonville School District. She is a board member for the Children’s Center of Clackamas County and chair of the Prevention and Education Committee. The Center and team are doing great work through the Stewards of Children program that educates adults on how to prevent, recognize and react responsibly to child sexual abuse. “This is important work because if my parents had known how to recognize the signs they could prevented my abuse.”