Nadia Telsey pioneered the field of verbal and emotional (as opposed to solely physical) self-defense, beginning with the cofounding of the feminist Center for Anti-Violence Education in Brooklyn in 1970. She has taught self-defense to thousands of students in the U.S. and abroad, including for seventeen years at the University of Oregon, where her class has been the subject of research on the efficacy of the approach. Her work against gender-based violence included many years serving on the Oregon Attorney General’s Sexual Assault Task Force and has influenced a generation of self-defense instructors both in the U.S. and around the world.
Lauren R. Taylor has been working to end gender-based violence since 1978, when she cofounded Washington, D.C.’s first shelter for abused women and their children. As an empowerment self-defense teacher, she’s facilitated close to 2,000 classes and workshops to more than 35,000 people. Taylor writes extensively on violence prevention and interpersonal violence. Her work has been featured in The Washington Post, Self, and The Huffington Post, and on National Public Radio, Upworthy, Quartz, Mic, and more.