STS

Our Team

Summer Willis

Founder and Executive Director | Board President

Summer Willis is the Founder, Executive Director, and Board President of Strength Through Strides. A Mom and Wife, her commitment to public service includes prior roles as a Teach for America educator and a Peace Corps Volunteer. Leveraging her personal journey, she became the namesake of the Summer Willis Act in Texas, which redefined consent law. She is an endurance athlete who sometimes takes on extreme challenges, such as running 29 marathons in a single year, to raise awareness and fund survivor resources.

Katiana Soenen

Chief Development Officer | Board Vice President

Katiana is the Board Vice President and Chief Development Officer at Strength Through Strides, where she leads legislative strategy, national awareness campaigns, fundraising initiatives, and organizational expansion.

After being sexually assaulted during her first year of college, Katiana found strength in advocacy. Her early legal activism began with serving as a plaintiff in a Title IX compliance case, pressing for stronger campus-safety systems and institutional accountability. Before joining Strength Through Strides, she focused on grassroots efforts to expand resources for college survivors as well as reproductive rights advocacy in Texas and Tennessee.

Alongside founder Summer Willis, Katiana now drives STS’s development pipeline, major donor partnerships, multi-state growth, and high-impact national campaigns—including the forthcoming “Denim Day 5K” series and the “Letter to My Younger Self” film. She is dedicated to building innovative and sustainable infrastructure, amplifying survivor voices, and advancing meaningful policy change.

Katiana was born and raised in Texas and currently based in Washington D.C. She holds a B.A. in Political Science and Public Health from Vanderbilt University.