Voices of the Foundation | Summer Willis Foundation

Our Founder

Summer Willis

Summer Willis is an endurance athlete, survivor advocate, filmmaker, and founder of the Summer Willis Foundation and The Denim Runs, a national movement supporting survivors of sexual assault. After surviving rape and domestic abuse, Summer turned to endurance challenges as a path to healing—most notably running 29 marathons in a single year, including one while carrying a mattress to symbolize the burden survivors are often forced to carry.

Courage, community, and movement can transform survival into strength.

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Today, Summer uses storytelling, community events, and extreme endurance challenges to spark cultural change around sexual violence. Through The Denim Runs, she brings communities together to support survivors, raise awareness, and celebrate resilience.

Summer serves as Chair of the Survivor’s Committee on the Governor’s Sexual Assault Survivors’ Task Force in Texas and is the namesake of the Summer Willis Act, landmark legislation that helped finally define consent in Texas law. She is currently directing a short animated film with acclaimed director Hisko Hulsing, exploring the journey of healing and reclaiming one’s voice.

A speaker, advocate, and mother of two, Summer believes deeply in the power of courage, community, and movement to transform survival into strength.

Policy, Development, and the Resource Map

Katiana Soenen

After meeting our founder, Summer Willis, in early 2025, Katiana Soenen became closely involved in the Summer Willis Foundation’s work, taking on a meaningful role in supporting its growth and direction. Katiana is a survivor of campus sexual assault. In the aftermath of her experience, she was confronted with the complexities of navigating institutional systems that often lack clarity, accessibility, and survivor-centered support. These challenges shaped her understanding of where change is most needed—and ultimately led her to take action.

Survivors deserve more than awareness—they deserve access, clarity, and support.

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Prior to joining the Foundation, Katiana led Soenen et al. v. Brown, a class action lawsuit against her former university aimed at strengthening Title IX compliance and expanding survivor resources. This experience and her experiences in reporting her assaults continue to inform the policy work and strategic direction she brings to the Foundation, including her support of advocacy efforts behind the Summer Willis Act in Texas in 2025 and the broader policy initiatives tied to A Letter to My Younger Self and its Impact Campaign.

Motivated by her own difficulty navigating support systems, Katiana is also honored to be leading the development of the Summer Willis Foundation Resource Map. Rooted in her challenges in navigating post-assault resources, the platform, now in its pilot phase, connects survivors, loved ones, and advocates to accessible, localized resources—making it easier to find and navigate support in moments of need. Through connection to resources and critical, expert-led tips and guidance presented in a trauma-informed and easy to navigate format, the Resource Map focuses on giving survivors the tools they need to make fully empowered and informed decisions as to how they find healing from sexual or domestic violence.

Katiana’s work is grounded in the belief that survivors deserve more than awareness—they deserve access, clarity, and support. She is honored to help build a future where resources are within reach and no one has to navigate healing alone.

Co-Founder & Partner, The Denim Runs

Laurence Cohen

When Summer Willis and I began working together in early 2024, she was 29 years old and was determined to break her silence about her sexual assault a decade earlier. She went from unspoken to outspoken by running 29 marathons and making meaningful connections with survivors in ways neither of us could possibly imagine.

The future of the Denim Runs is limitless.

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Exhibit A is the Summer Willis Act as a result of her persuading Texas legislators to adopt the state’s first ever law defining consent. Given my background handling media relations for the Los Angeles Marathon for 15 years and launching the Las Vegas Marathon, Summer and I discussed the idea of annual events honoring the resilience and courage of sexual assault survivors.

Laurence Cohen cycling alongside young runners at a race

After a nearly three year gestation period where neither of us was compensated and our faith was tested, but never wavered, the Denim Runs series was born in 2026 with three successful events in Santa Monica, New York and Austin. My company TLC MediaWorks distinguished itself by having long-term business relationships with clients. When I lost all my clients at the start of the pandemic, I had time to reflect on the successes that defined my career— events and individuals that connect and help people.

Here are a few examples:

Julie Weiss ran 52 marathons in 52 weeks and raised more than a quarter million dollars for pancreatic cancer.
Served on the board of The Family Assistance Program for five years to help homeless families.
Raised 11 million dollars for prostate cancer research in a “Keep Father in the Game” alliance with Major League Baseball.
Developed a methodology of finding the most inspiring stories of each L.A. Marathon to share with the media each year.
Worked with the Lazarex Cancer Foundation to connect late stage cancer patients with free clinical trials to extend their time with loved ones.
Created the Run Thru Wedding Ceremony for the Las Vegas Marathon.
Sponsored the first tree to launch TreePeople at age 17 in 1968. The nonprofit has since planted millions of trees to combat the effects of smog in Southern California and efforts are underway to replenish the vegetation lost to the wildfires in Pacific Palisades and Altadena.

I’ve often said that my children are the amazing causes I’ve nurtured. It’s taken a lifetime — I have found a favorite in Summer Willis, her Foundation and the Denim Runs. Despite the four decades that separate us, our genuine friendship is the reason our partnership is thriving. The future of the Denim Runs is limitless. The vision is to expand nationally and internationally starting in 2027 with a determination to bring perpetrators to justice and comfort to the men, women, LGBTQ and children to be impacted by sexual assault. This will be our legacy and how I would like to best be remembered.

Our Advocacy and Impact Campaign

Samantha McCoy

Samantha McCoy brings more than a decade of legislative experience advocating for survivors of violence. Her advocacy spans state, federal, and international arenas, with a record of driving meaningful, survivor‑centered reform.

Survivors deserve laws and systems that honor their dignity and safeguard their futures.

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Samantha was one of the survivor voices behind the federal TAKE IT DOWN Act, a landmark piece of legislation that created a national mechanism for removing non‑consensual intimate images from online platforms. Her work additionally includes the successful passage of multiple state‑level laws in more than five states, advancing reforms related to survivor rights, digital safety, forensic evidence, and consent. On the global stage, Samantha provided her voice and advocacy to pass the first‑ever standalone United Nations Resolution on sexual violence, elevating survivor voices and setting an international standard for accountability and protection.

Samantha’s commitment to this work is deeply personal. Before becoming an attorney, she served as a licensed mental health therapist specializing in trauma‑informed care. Her early career supporting survivors one‑on‑one revealed the systemic gaps that too often leave people unprotected, unheard, or without recourse. Those experiences and her own journey as a survivor ultimately led her to join the Summer Willis Foundation’s Board and contribute to its policy mission. She is driven by the belief that survivors deserve not only healing and community, but also laws and systems that honor their dignity and safeguard their futures.