Survivor advocate joins Emerson College

Emerson College has hired Greta Spoering as a survivor advocate who will work in the College’s Violence Prevention and Response center.

The Emerson community is welcome to attend a meet-and-greet with Spoering on Tuesday, October 14, 9:00–10:00 am, in Common Ground on the 10th floor of the Walker Building.

Spoering, a licensed clinical social worker, specializes in working with people who have experienced interpersonal violence. She was previously a counselor and advocate at the Violence Recovery Program at Fenway Health in Boston, where she worked with LGBTQ community members who experienced partner abuse, sexual assault, hate crimes, and police misconduct.

She also interned at the Casa Myrna domestic violence agency in Boston and has volunteered with the Saratoga Domestic Violence/Rape Crisis Center.

“Greta comes to this work from a place of valuing and believing in justice, healing, love and compassion, liberation, growth, and renewal,” said Melanie Matson, director of Violence Prevention and Response. “We are thrilled she will be joining us to enhance our community efforts for safety, support, and care.”

Spoering has experience supporting people in coping with the impact of interpersonal violence; thinking through safety planning; getting connected to legal, medical, and community resources; and filing police reports, discrimination cases, and crime victim’s compensation.

She began working in the field of interpersonal violence as an undergraduate at Skidmore College, where she co-led a program that worked to raise awareness about dating violence and sexual assault. She also designed and implemented programming, and collaborated with a multidisciplinary team to adjust campus policies and procedures on reporting sexual assault to be increasingly survivor-centered.

Spoering holds a master’s degree in social work from Simmons College and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Skidmore.