Shari Karney
PASSIONATE ADVOCATE FOR RAPE & ABUSE VICTIMS
Fee Range
$12,500Travels From
Los Angeles, CA, US
Shari Karney
Biography
"If I can protect just one child from going through what I went through, it will all have been worth it"
Shari Karney was raped and near murdered as a child. She is the subject of the NBC movie Shattered Trust: The Shari Karney Story, an Attorney, and award winning fighter for victims' rights. She shares her heartfelt story about the struggles, dangers, and disappointments growing up and is a living reminder that nobody should ever give up hope.
Shari Karney is an indefatigable force who uses her legal expertise to champion the rights of women and children, and she does so with passion. A driving influence who has the guts to get laws passed, she used her experience in and out of the courthouse to help pioneer legislation that changed the law for survivors of sexual abuse and set the foundations for the landmark legislation that started the movement for rape justice.
A widely respected legal expert on breaking news cases, she has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox Television, Inside Edition, CBC (Canada), and hundreds of other television and radio shows. She was legal expert on the Penn State child sexual assault trial, and gave commentary on the Jerry Sandusky Trial, Penn State. She has been a legal analyst and commentator for top breaking legal stories for 15 years.
Shari's work on behalf of child sexual abuse victims was the subject of an NBC TV-movie called Shattered Trust, The Shari Karney Story. National ratings showed that every third television in America was tuned to Shari's compelling story. After the movie aired, NBC and their affiliates were inundated with thousands of calls from people who wanted to contact her. They all asked when and where they could see her. Child Help USA received so many calls after the movie, that their phone lines went down. The Capitol switchboard in Washington, D.C., was flooded with calls of people who wanted to have their voices heard. They all asked for Shari's Bill--a Bill that in 1991 extended the Statute of Limitations for child sexual abuse victims in California--to be passed nationally. Governor Jerry Brown signed the Bill into law on 28 September 2016, after it received bipartisan support and praise from law enforcement and women's rights advocates.
Shari Karney is a Social Entrepreneur and Founder of ROAR as ONE. A Non-Profit Focusing On The Rights Of Action For Survivors Of All Forms Of Sexual Abuse
Founded by Attorney Shari Karney, ROAR as ONE, Inc., is a non-profit organization focusing on the rights of action for survivors of all forms of sexual abuse.
ROAR was created to restore dignity and defend the right to pursue happiness for every person who has suffered through sexual assault, rape, incest, child sexual abuse and been silenced and manipulated for the pleasure of others.
Our goal is to ensure equality under the law for survivors of sexual assault and abuse. To create a society and government to defend these rights and allow all voices to speak and be heard.
Shari Karney
Featured Videos
Shari Karney
Featured Keynote Programs
For Corporate Events
Compassionate Action in the Workplace
Corporate Motivational Speaker Shari Karney knows how to inspire employees, sales managers, and sales team to push themselves beyond their own limitations. To never give up. She teaches compassionate action in the workplace. Reserve Shari Karney now to boost employee morale and increase sales.
Shari Karney is an inspiring motivational speaker and author. Her keynotes have inspired audiences across America with her never give up attitude.
When individuals push themselves beyond their own perceived limits, facing difficult challenges, never giving up, everyone around them becomes inspired. Hope and optimism are infectious and hold the keys to higher productivity, increased sales, better customer service. Happy employees means happy customers. Personal and professional success begins, first and foremost, with our thoughts and beliefs. A workplace of compassion is a workplace everybody wants to be a part of. Good feelings are contagious. Employees will find their professional and personal lives opening up to new promise, ideas and fresh opportunities.
Shari’s presentations inspire people to discover their inner resources to overcome any obstacle, no matter how challenging. Combining her experience as an entrepreneuer with a triumphant personal history Shari has shown audiences that they too can thrive in their organizations by reaching beyond their own perceived limitations.
Shari knows first-hand the power of attitude in coping with adversity and overcoming hardship. Her story is one of resilience and redemption. At three years of age, Shari was sexually abused by her father, physically tortured by her mother and at age 6 was raped by another family member. She repressed all memory of these challenging events, until she was an attorney, during her first trial defending a three-year old child who had been molested by her father. Shari’s life began to unravel during cross-examination of the defendant. After serving two nights in jail for attempting to strangle the father-perpetrator on the witness stand, Shari was forced to come to terms with her own dark past.
Yet through it all, Shari never gave up. Rather than hiding from her past, she is using her traumatic circumstances to inspire and help others heal and find hope in facing difficult life challenges.
Shari captures the heart of employees and managers with humor, energy and interactive exercises with the audience to help move the workplace to a place of compassionate action where change happens. She believes that if she can touch the heart of her audience, it will create lasting positive change both personal and professional. Everyone can relate to some part of Shari’s story, whether it is her personal struggle, professional accomplishments, or her efforts to change the laws to protect our most cherished citizens—our children.
Overcoming Adversity
The Shari Karney Story
There was a time, when a young Shari would have told you she came from the perfect family. Her mother was a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, her father, a successful writer for a business magazine. The Karney family won Family of the Year in 1956, Culver City, California. This perfect family fairy tale came crashing down while Shari was defending a three-year old child who had been sexually molested by her father. Shari’s life began to unravel during cross-examination of the defendant. After serving two nights in jail for attempting to strangle the father-perpetrator on the witness stand, Shari was forced to come to terms with her own past.
In this mesmerizing message, Shari shares her amazing story of determination in the face of unimaginable adversity. Her speech not only tells her personal story, but also discusses topics such as overcoming extreme adversity, the important process of recovery, and seeing adversity as an opportunity for growth and inspiration. Shari knows first hand that there is nothing more important than having hope in a challenging situation. Rather than hiding from her past, she is using her traumatic circumstances to inspire and help others heal and find hope in facing difficult life challenges.
Helping Women Find Their Voice
Never in my wildest dreams as a child could I have ever imagined going from a fearful, hurt, voiceless little girl to becoming a worldwide symbol of hope, national spokesperson, attorney and author --giving voice to the voiceless. Her speech will help any woman who feels silenced, invisible, talked over, interrupted, talked down to, passed over, passed up, lonely, anxious, depressed, invisible. Finding your voice and using it to overcome adversity and challenges.
Conquering Child Abuse
-One-in-three girls and one-in-five boys are victims of child sexual abuse.
- Worldwide, the United Nations reported that there are 150 million girls and 73 million boys under the age of who experienced sexual violence (totally 223 million of reported cases).
- Child Sexual abuse affects women 3 times more than breast cancer and affects men 1.5 times more than prostate cancer. The overall rate for child abuse and neglect is about ten times as high as the incidence rate for all forms of cancer.
- Child sexual abuse has costly consequences on survivors’ success in every aspect of life, from education to health care to lose workdays, lost productivity and lifetime earnings. A recent study recognized that each victim of child sexual abuse faces an average loss of at least $210,102 in lifetime earnings. Among US children ages 0-19 today, this costs each State’s economy more than $1 billion a year per state, averaging 50 billion a year across the United States.
As a survivor of child sexual abuse, I share my journey to my successful recovery and in the process educate on prevention, detecting understanding this epidemic.
The good news: 95% of child sexual abuse is preventable through education and awareness-not only awareness of its effects on victims, but also on the larger community. That is why it’s so impotent to educating and empowers our children and their families.
A must for any organization looking to educate, inspire and protect their employees, productivity, sales, health care and human costs.