Bekah Charleston

Strategic Initiatives Director

The Jensen Project

Bekah Charleston is the Strategic Initiatives Director at The Jensen Project where she manages projects, partnerships and strategic initiatives that help fuel the end of sexual violence against women by identifying best practices and leveraging resources to support and scale projects focused on research, housing, education, and economic empowerment. Prior to this, she served as the Executive Director of a non-profit serving and supporting sexually exploited individuals where she managed operations, programming, and community outreach initiatives.

Bekah’s dedication to the empowerment of Survivors comes from her own lived experience. After surviving a decade of abuse and exploitation, Bekah founded her own organization to provide customized training and consultancy services. Since then, she has provided guidance and coaching for program development, strategic planning, and economic empowerment initiatives to diverse audiences. Throughout her career, Bekah has collaborated with a variety of national stakeholders to develop and implement resources and training, and fight for state and federal policy changes. She has been an active member of two task forces, was a 2019 TEDx speaker, and has been recognized for her critical work in the anti-trafficking field by her colleagues and peers. In 2016, Bekah proudly earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice followed by a master’s in criminology in 2018. Her story of resilience and hope has been featured in communities across the nation by numerous media outlets. Most importantly, she is the proud mother of an incredible little boy who she is raising to change the world one day at a time.