Activist Monica Lewinsky will be sharing her battle against online harassment and how she is advocating for a safer social media environment.

Monica Lewinsky is a social activist in the battle against online harassment, advocating for a safer social media environment. As a public speaker, writer, and contributor to Vanity Fair she addresses such topics as survival, resilience, digital reputation and equality. Monica’s lens for these societal issues is focused by her myriad unique and profound experiences: working in government, both in the White House and the Pentagon; the investigation that resulted from her time in Washington, D.C.; involvement in media projects as both producer and subject; as an entrepreneur and designer; and lastly, education. She graduated with a degree in Psychology from Lewis & Clark College (Portland, Oregon) and, living abroad for graduate school, earned a Master’s degree in Social Psychology from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Lewinsky became known to the public in 1998, when it was revealed as part of a federal investigation that she had had an intimate relationship with then President Bill Clinton. Overnight, at just 24 years old, she went unwillingly, from being an entirely private individual to a public figure on the global stage. Being at the center of a legal, political and media maelstrom nearly destroyed her; her survival despite the odds is a compelling and inspiring story.

The investigation unfolded against a backdrop of a changing media landscape with the advent of both competing 24-hour News Networks and the Internet. With the birth of social media in recent years, Lewinsky saw the increasing proliferation of the perpetuation of shame and humiliation online. As someone who had experienced both, on the widest scale and at a young age, she saw that she could participate in the public discourse about online harassment and work to effect change.

Lewinsky is an Anti-Bullying Ambassador to both Bystander Revolution in the US and The Diana Award in the UK. Lewinsky is on the advisory board of Project Rockit and a founding member of the Childhood Resilience Foundation.

This event will be moderated by award-winning journalist and host of 630 CHED Afternoons, J’lyn Nye.