‘In seeking support, I found a home’: How Kristie Fortmann-Doser became a key player in sexual violence survivor advocacy

Kristie Fortmann-Doser’s path in life was set in 1986. That was the year she attended her first training with the Rape Victim Advocacy Program (RVAP).

“It challenged me to look at empathy and to look at autonomy and authenticity in a completely different way,” she said. “That training is what changed my life trajectory.”

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It’s a full circle moment: Fortmann-Doser’s career in sexual violence advocacy began with RVAP. Now, she’s retiring in December, a little over a year after RVAP merged with the Domestic Violence Intervention Program (DVIP) where Fortmann-Doser worked for the last 32 years. Colleagues say her legacy will be defined by empathy, collaboration and dedication.

Finding a home in sexual violence advocacy

Personal experience sparked Fortmann-Doser’s advocacy. When she was an undergraduate at the University of Iowa, she struggled to cope after being sexually abused. She initially came to RVAP for personal help but discovered she had a talent for the work the organization did.

“In seeking support, I found a home,” said Fortmann-Doser.

At the time Fortmann-Doser started volunteering with RVAP, specialized training programs for nurses conducting sexual assault exams were still in their infancy. General physicians and nurses performed exams. So Fortmann-Doser worked as an on-call volunteer, carrying a pager overnight or on a weekend and accompanied rape victims who rang the pager to their exams.

Slow and steady progress at DVIP

When Fortmann-Doser came to DVIP in 1993, she was hired as a rural outreach coordinator. Her job was to connect with people in small communities who recognized sexual violence was an issue, even if they were afraid to voice their beliefs. Although DVIP would eventually partner with law enforcement and social services, Fortmann-Doser said the initial work was to simply find allies.

“When I first started this work 39 years ago it was not considered a good thing to be an advocate, was not considered a good thing to support victims,” Fortmann-Doser said. “It was really about trying to find those spaces where somebody could have an impact but didn’t have to be visible in doing it.”

She recalled a small cafe in Marengo owned by a survivor who wanted to help. She gave Fortmann-Doser’s group free coffee and made sure they weren’t seated too close to anyone else.

“It was those itty bitty little things that were really just about a recognition of how hard it was,” Fortmann-Doser said.

Cooper’s House and merger with RVAP

Fortmann-Doser became DVIP’s executive director in 2004. Alta Medea, director of community engagement at DVIP, said one of Fortmann-Doser’s key accomplishments as the director was the creation of Cooper’s House, a program to house victim-survivors’ pets as they work to find a safer living situation. Medea said around half the people reaching out to DVIP had a hard time leaving unsafe situations out of fear for their pet’s safety. What started as a fostering program expanded over time to include a kennel service, dog runs and pet suites where owners could visit their pets any time.

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“It’s absolutely stunning, beautiful, and has saved so many animals’ lives and peoples’ lives that would not have been able to leave,” Medea said. “Children have been able to process and share their own abuse stories with our youth advocates in that safe space while playing with their cat … there's a lot of those stories around that space. That is because Kristie listened to victims and adapted.”

Another key development during Fortmann-Doser’s tenure was the DVIP/RVAP merger that took place in 2024. DVIP absorbed RVAP in 2024 in agreement with the University of Iowa, which used to house the organization. Fortmann-Doser said the dust still is settling, but the transition is largely complete. Most importantly, none of the 157 sexual assault nurse exam calls the organization received in the year since the merger went unanswered.

Dedicated, motivating, supportive

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Fortmann-Doser will officially retire on Dec. 19 after 32 years with DVIP and 39 years of sexual violence advocacy work. Johnson County Sheriff Brad Kunkel served on DVIP’s board for six years and said her departure will be a “shock to the system.”

“Most of us don't do anything for that long, and yet, she's dedicated her entire career to it,” Kunkel said. “That's a monumental thing.”

Delaney Dixon came to DVIP in 1999 as a summer youth advocate and AmeriCorps member. Now, 26 years later, she’s one of DIVP/RVAP’s incoming co-executive directors. Dixon said Fortmann-Doser’s high expectations motivated her to constantly improve.

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“You always found yourself needing to grow, because to accept anything less was to accept less for victim-survivors,” Dixon said.

Medea will be DVIP/RVAP’s other co-executive director. Like Fortmann-Doser, she started as a volunteer with DVIP 20 years ago and grew into official leadership. She said a key lesson Fortmann-Doser taught her was to avoid burnout by redefining success.

“The problem is that there's always more need. There's always a new person that needs help,” Medea said. Fortmann-Doser helped her see how work added up over time. Even if not every battle was won, each family moving into a new apartment or child having a moment of safety was a victory.

“I wouldn't be who I am as a parent, as a friend, as a person without that leadership and support,” Medea said.

Gone for a while, but not forever

Fortmann-Doser said she plans to use her retirement time to play with her dog and develop her crafting skills. She’s a self-described “fiber queen” and said she wants to learn how to dye fiber with natural dyes, something she didn’t have the capacity to work on in the past. However, Fortmann-Doser knows she won’t stay away forever. She said she could see herself bringing her dog Bailey in for animal therapy with DVIP/RVAP sometime in the future.

“This organization is my entire adulthood,” Fortmann-Doser said. “I will be a supporter of this organization until the day I die in some way, shape or form.”

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