Throughout her career, Lt. Col. Celia FlorCruz has been a true military mover and shaker. Not only did she graduate from one of the first classes at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to admit females, but she also served as a medevac pilot in Operation Desert Storm and commanded a medical unit at Fort Drum, New York. She currently serves as the Soldier Readiness Officer for the 7th Infantry Division at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

All the while, FlorCruz, who runs JBLM's Sexual Harassment/Assault Response Prevention (SHARP) program and is married to I Corps Deputy Commander Maj. Gen. Kenneth Dahl, held close a secret. Recently, however, she finally felt ready to share the truth: As a first-year student at the University of Virginia, FlorCruz, then just 17, was sexually assaulted.

During a 2013 interview with The Olympian newspaper, FlorCruz said many of her female classmates at West Point were sexually assaulted as well, some of them violently. "It was not a friendly place to be," she said.

Many of those soldiers did not report the crimes against them. "I don't think anybody felt safe enough to do it," she said. "For one, that justice would be served, and for another, she felt she'd be a failure. You would just prove yourself to be weak."

FlorCruz will share her story and discuss how she is working to change that attitude and the environment that breeds it, during a Feb. 17 presentation entitled "From Victim to Survivor to Leader: Preventing Sexual Assault in the Military and on Campus" at Pacific Lutheran University.

The event is part of the school's spring spotlight series, entitled, "...and justice for all?"

During her presentation, FlorCruz will detail her journey from sexual assault victim to her current role as the leader of the Army's first SHARP program. The program, which began on JBLM in 2013, strives to eliminate "sexual harassment and sexual assault by creating a climate that respects the dignity of every member of the Army Family." The office on JBLM brings together victim advocates, legal services and Criminal Investigation Division (CID) agents and offers an alternative site for victims of sexual assault to report the crime.

The presentation will also examine the parallels between military and campus life and how those environments could lead to sexual assault. Both have a "closed campus" atmosphere, both feature residents who are often away from home for the first time and both have barracks/dorm-living surroundings with readily available alcohol.

"I think the timing is impeccable," said Jennifer Warwick, MSW, PLU Victim Advocate and Voices Against Violence administrator. "There is a big conversation nationally about campus sexual violence. Bringing her to campus is a nice parallel to share her own story as a survivor and where she has gone in her life to take a leadership role in preventing and responding to sexual violence, looking at her story as turning into a calling or vocation for her."

For more information about PLU's spring speaker series, visit the website. For more information about the SHARP program, visit the Army's website.

"From Victim to Survivor to Leader: Preventing Sexual Assault in the Military and on Campus" presentation, 6 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 17, reception to follow, Karen Hille Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, Pacific Lutheran University, 12180 Park Ave. S., Tacoma, free admission, plu.edu.